


Pretty Boy [Lams]

by PinkPanicAesthicc



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alexander Hamilton/John Laurens Fluff, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Athlete!John, Bisexual Alexander Hamilton, Cheerleader!Alex, F/F, F/M, Falling In Love, Feminine!Alex, First Dates, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Gay John Laurens, I'm Bad At Tagging, Instagram, M/M, Overprotective older brother!Lafayette, Romantic Fluff, Texting, Thomas Jefferson Being an Asshole, Underage Drinking, dms, fast burn, quick relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2020-01-05 03:38:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 37,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18357827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkPanicAesthicc/pseuds/PinkPanicAesthicc
Summary: John finds Alex's Instagram page. They chat, meet, and fall for each other. John is a nervous reck half of the time, and Alexander is the same, but has a better way of hiding it.They are a classic high school couple. Only difference is they met over Instagram, and go to different schools.Fluff/Slight Angst





	1. 1

**JOHN'S POV:**

 

"I'm telling you, Aaron doesn't know when to speak up. And when he does, 'talks softer than Madison." Herc told me as I scolled through my Insta Feed.

 

I "listened" as he continued but completely shut him out as he started yelling to Lafayette from across the classroom. We were in Advisory class, so absolutely no one was listening. Not even the teacher was doing his job as he just typed on his computer. At the mention of his name, I looked up Lafayette straight out of boredom. I was not surprised to find that he had an Instagram.

 

I scrolled through his feed and liked a few photos with Hercules tagged in it, before I scrolled past a picture of his family from about six months ago. There was something odd about it though. 

 

I hadn't really known Laf all that personally. I had talked to him a few times, like whenever Hercules was with him, but never really anything more than that. So of course, I hadn't known anyone in his family.

 

The picture was of him and his (what I assumed to be) adoptive parents, his dad on the left side of him and his mom on the right. But in between Laf and his mother was another kid. At first, I thought it might have been his friend or something. But who takes family pictures with a friend?

 

I noticed the tag in the corner of the post and clicked on it. The username appeared over the boy's eyes.

 

**_Ham.Alex_ **

 

My curiosity got the best of my judgement and with another click, I was on his Instagram page.

 

I felt my face go red as I clicked on the first picture. It was a selfie of the same kid, his hair was up in a high ponytail and he was wearing makeup. If not for his facial structure and body shape, I might have thought he was a girl. Then again, he could of been transgender.

 

The caption of the post read; ** _'Wake up then makeup'_**

 

I couldn't stop myself from looking at more of his photos. One really caught my eye. It was a full body photo of him in a pose I could only describe as seductive. He was wearing makeup again, had on an oversized school team hoodie and nike cheer shorts.

 

The background was most definitely his bedroom. It was very tumblr, to say the least. There was a loft bed and vanity in view and fairy lights strung from the wall that was painted a creme color.

 

I felt the same blush spread across my face as I noticed the revealed thighs in the photo. His milky skin looked so soft. My eyes widened as his right thigh showed a small markings on it, but the rest of the supposed tattoo was covered by one of his hands.

 

I tapped my screen twice.

 

Oh, shit.

 

What could I do then? Unlike it!? You can't just unlike a post from a pretty boy!

 

Pretty boy.

 

That fit Alex for sure.

 

I rolled my eyes at my own stupidity and as I turned, I saw Hercules not looking at me- but my phone.

 

"I'd be careful." he said cautiously.

 

"That's Lafayette's adopted little brother. He is extremely protective of 'em." I guess I gave him a weird look, because he continued his point. "Burr tried to ask Alex out last year, came to school with a black eye and phobia of all french dudes." Hercules snorted.

 

"Wait! Did I tell you about Burr and Theodosia? Because, holy shit! So, Aaron saw her in chemistry class and..."

 

I began to block him out again as my gaze shifted back across the room to Lafayette. He was talking to Adrienne- probably flirting with her. 

 

I bit my lip, and looked back down at my phone. After scrolling a bit more, a video caught my attention.

 

I muted it, just to be safe. He was with girl, and they were laughing and pushing each other playfully. They looked liked a couple or something.

 

I don't know why, but I felt my blood boil and lips scowl into a disappointed pout.

 

I read the caption, _**'Crazy bitch @AndPeggy_Margarita'**_

 

I clicked the tag name, and instantly came to realization at the sight of her profile. She was making out with another dude. That cleared things up.

I went back to Alex's Instagram, and took the time to look at his profile picture. It wasn't of him, but of a sunflower drawing that was painted pink.

 

'Did he paint it?' I thought, 'It looks amazing.'

 

His bio was even more intriguing.

_**Alexander (Alex)** _

_**17 y/o** _

_**Basic biotch** _

_**Cheer/Art/VB** _

_**the Bi in Bitch** _

_**F E M I N I N E** _

🇵🇷

Okay. Why is this boy literally perfect? For one, he's gorgeous. And he's bisexual!? My gay ass felt its heart stop when I read that. He's only a year yonger than me, too.

 

I couldn't help myself- I had to. I clicked the follow button as soon as I was done reading, then scrolled back down and clicked on another post. Alex was on somebody's back wearing another white hoodie that was maybe as big as he was, and his bright smile revealed his braces. They were adorable, I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed them before. I looked to see who was with him and felt my smile drop as I saw it was Lafayette. He was also smiling at the camera, but it looked more smug.

 

I liked the photo, and scrolled down to the next. This time, Alex wasn't wearing any makeup, his shoulder-length hair was in a messy bun, and he was wearing a baby blue sweater and putting up a piece sign that showed his painted black nails.

 

He was cacooned in a grey and white blanket while sitting in front of a textbook, and the caption read; _**'Shoutout to school for mentally draining me :)'**_

 

I couldn't help but laugh. Speaking of school, I was startled when I heard the dismissal bell ring throughout the room and building but quickly stood up out of my chair, eager to leave.

 

I grabbed my bag and made a dash out of the door and down the hall to the building doors.

 

It didn't take me long to find my dad's car and get in the passenger seat. I almost threw my bag in the back, before I saw my little sister Mary sitting in her booster seat. I placed it in front of my feet instead and buckled up as dad sped off.

 

He asked the usual questions that every parent did. 'How was school' 'Did you learn anything new' 'Do you have homework'. I mumbled answers back to him as I looked through Alex's page, liking every post I came across.

 

When we stopped at a red light, dad looked over my shoulder as I liked another photo. ***** "He's cute. What's his name?"

 

"Alex." I said, "I don't think he goes to my school." Mary squeaked from the back seat. "I wanna' see! Lemme see!"

 

I rolled my eyes and held out my phone for her to see. Mary smiled, "Alex's pretty."

 

"Yeah, he is."

 

She then suddenly gasped, and did what all annoying five year olds do. She pointed and mocked, "You like Alex!"

 

"You like David!" I chanted back. She blushed and and crossed her arms. "No, I don't!"

 

"Then why'd you kiss him?" I laughed. She didn't, but it was funny to watch her reactions. "I didn't!" Mary screeched. "You want to marry him~"

 

"Daddy!"

 

"Leave your sister alone, John."

 

I rolled my eyes and went back to my phone, and noticed one Alex's older photos. The date said it was from about a year ago. He was holding a baby on his hip, and they were both wearing sunglasses. The baby was puckering their lips and Alex was doing the same.

_**'Call me Steve Harrington cuz I make  a pretty damn good babysitter'** _

 

He babysat? That's adorable! If so, that would mean he was good with kids right? Imagine him with Mary. I awed at the thought. I Imagine him with our own baby-

 

 _Woah_. I'm getting ahead of myself.

 

I haven't even met the guy, and I'm already fantasizing about him? Jesus christ, I'm crazy.

 

My thoughts were disrupted by my phone notification going off, and I saw my own profie icon flash. I clicked on it and saw I had gotten a new like on a photo.

 

_**Ham.Alex liked your photo.** _

 

My eyes went wide. I must have stared at my phone with my mouth dropped open like an idiot until we got home, because dad had to snap his fingers in my face just to get me out of my state of shock.

 

I ran upstairs, yelling a 'Hi mom' to my mother as I rushed up. I slammed my door shut and threw myself onto my bed.

 

My phone had gone off again. Then again and again. It was like every second I got a new notification. I watched in awe. He had liked most of my posts from the past two weeks. This was insane!

 

I looked down and saw a new notification, one that sent me in a greater shock then I thought I could muster.

 

_**Ham.Alex sent you a message: "Hi there"** _

 

Oh, my God.

Holy. Shit.

Alex had sent me a message.

 

I couldn't help it as I screamed. More like squealed. I know, I'm a total girly but still- a practically God like creature noticed my existence.

 

I debated on whether to text back, or to wait. But I was just so excited, I couldn't help myself from typing a response.

 

I hesitated before finally clicking send.

 

**(*Oh, would ya look at that, a fanfiction where John's dad ain't homophobic 😊 )**


	2. 2

**ALEX'S POV:**

 

I waved goodbye to Eliza as the school bus drove away. She gave me a toothy grin, and waved back before the bus turned the corner down the road. 

 

I sighed in relief, starting my walk home. School had been exhausting. First we did the Pacer test in gym, then a science test about biology. I didn't have any idea what I was doing all day. I was relieved to finally be home.

 

When I got to the apartment door, Mom was already standing in the doorway. She gave me a smile, "Hi, sweetie. How was school?" "Useless." I said blankly.

 

Mom laughed and changed the subject. "There's snacks in the kitchen. I have to head up to Laf's school. I'll be back." 

 

"Don't die on your way back." I sarcastically pleaded. Mom rolled her eyes but kept the same warm smile on her face. She patted my head before walking out and shutting the door behind her.

 

I walked upstairs to find I was home alone again, but didn't really mind. I used to have to have mom or dad keep me company, And even have a babysitter until I was almost thirteen years old. 

 

But that was a while ago, and I had grown up since then.

 

When I got to my room, I saw Bebe- my cat- sleeping on her bed under my desk that was attached to my loft bed, and awed at the sight. I tiptoed over to my desk and picked her up. She stayed asleep in my arms until I started climbing the ladder to get to the top of my bed.

 

Bebe purred and rubbed her head against my chest before letting out a huge yawn. I was to preoccupied by the adorable sight to notice my phone vibrating in my pocket.

 

I ignored it until it vibrated ten more times.

 

I groaned in annoyance and tore it out from my pocket. It was an Instagram notification. Not just one, but a couple. Maybe more than a dozen?

 

Opening my Instagram, I was bombarded with likes from one specific person. I sighed, "Probably just another creep again." But was surprised when I found it was a guy that looked about my age.

 

He had followed me, too. 

 

Confused, I didn't bother to see what pictures he had liked and went to his own page.

 

_**JLaurens_SC** _

 

_**John// 18** _

**🏳️🌈**

_**NPHS** _

_**South Carolina 🛫 Manhattan** _

_**Baseball boyz**_  

 

His profile picture was of what I assumed to be him. John had brown and long curly hair that was held back in a tight bun with both sides of his head shaved into a design of some sort, and had freckles sprinkled all around his face like sprinkles on a birthday cake. John even had some facial hair. His strong jawline, tan face made him look like he a college kid. His eyes were emerald green, staring back at the camera and in doing so, right back into my own eyes. I clicked on his most recent post, and blinked twice just to see if what I was seeing wasn't just an illusion.

 

It was John, and he was shirtless. He was looking away from the camera like he didn't even know his photo was being taken, and laughing with a beer can in his hand. His caption on showed two beer emojis with the additional 

 

 _ **'Exposed'**_ , The caption wrote.

 

A smile cracked onto my face with a blush, and I clicked twice on it. I didn't think much of it when I liked another. I didn't think two much of it when I found myself liking almost every post from the last month on John's page.

 

I prayed he wasn't a secret pervert.

 

When I got to another selfie of him, that's when I found myself blushing and squirming in my seat. The guy was next level hot!

 

'That's it' I thought, 'Let me DM this boy'

 

 

 

The moment I hopped off my bed to go get a drink was when I got a response. 

 

He sent me back a **_'Hey'_** and I felt myself slightly bouncing on my heels.

I sent back a quick response. 

 

**JOHN'S POV:**

 

 ** _'Hey'_** I finally sent back. Not even ten seconds later, Alex texted me back.

 

_**Ham.Alex:** Your name is John right?_

 

_**JLaurens_SC:** Yea. How did u know?_

 

 _ **Ham.Alex:**_ _wild guess. Lol, your bio says John and ur username has a 'J' in it so I just guessed._

 

 _ **JLaurens_SC:**_ _Oh lol. Pardon me for being a dumbass. So what made you want to talk to me?_

 

 _ **Ham.Alex:**_ _I saw you liking my pics, so i checked your feed and thought I'd be awkward and say hi. You seemed cool._

 

_**JLaurens_SC:** Thanks. You seem cool too._

 

I couldn't stop smiling as I sent another message, 

 

_**JLaurens_SC:** So, tell me about yourself._

 

Before immediately panicking. Now he was going to think I was weird, or worst- desperate for me to ask him so soon. I had ruined the whole mood and-

 

_Ding!_

 

 **Ham.Alex:** _Mkay. I'm seventeen, I live in New York, I go to Junior King's High. I do cheer and art club. I'm adopted, I was born in Puerto Rico, my favorite color is pastel blue. I'm not trans if u were wondering, I'm just feminine- but sometimes I just like to wear jeans and a hoodie without makeup lol._

 

 _ **Ham.Alex:**_ _Oh, and I hate Coca-Cola._

 

Alex texted back two more messages after that. 

 

Soon, I knew that his favorite song was 'Sunflower' by Post Malone, he loved sushi, he played Volleyball for his school, he had a best friend named Peggy, and he hated hospitals. The guy even told me that he watched Disney movies when he was sad! How cute was that? 

 

I wanted to ask more about him, seeing if I could learn everything I could about Alex. With just a few text messages, he seemed so nice and funny and sarcastic- all things I loved about a person's personality.

 

Alex then asked me about myself, and I couldn't help but chuckle as he sent a small apology for talking about himself for so long.

 

I obviously didn't find it a problem, though. He honestly seemed like an interesting person. Like, the boy next door except its... the pretty boy next door.

 

 ** _JLaurens_SC:_** _No its alright, your fine and you seem so cool. Umm ok,,, I'm eighteen but I'm in my junior year, I live with my folks and little sister, I was born in South Carolina but we moved to New York when Mary was born, I play baseball and like to draw, and I have a best friend named Hercules._

 

 _ **A.Ham:**_ _Wow, that's a sweet life. I think I saw a picture of your sister. Is she the light-skinned freckled girl with the pigtails?_

 

_**JLaurens_SC:** yep. She's five._

 

 _ **Ham.Alex:**_ _She's adorable. If you ever need a babysitter, I can help out. First time is always free_

 

 _ **JLaurens_SC:**_ _Thanks. And I'll keep that in mind. But she can be a handful lol_

 

_**Ham.Alex:** Well then I guess you'd have to help me then._

 

My face went bright red and I bit my lip. Is he flirting with me? Or just saying that? I didn't know what to think or say next. I saw that while I was freaking out, Alex posted a new post. As soon as my finger pressed the screen, I viewed it.

 

It was a mirror-selfie of him and a cat, and he was kissing its nose. I paid less attention to the feline and more to Alexander. 

 

He was wearing a yellow sweater, ripped blue cut shorts, and beige colored tights. He had gold hoop earrings in and his hair was down with Yellow lens sunglasses resting on his head. His makeup was natural and flawless.

 

The most gorgeous boy I had ever seen, he sure was.

 

I read the caption, _**'Mon joli bébé chat'**_

 

The boy spoke French, too! Now how could he not be taken? He was absolutely amazing! I liked the photo before going back to my DM's to see Alex had sent a new message.

 

_**Ham.Alex:** [phone number]_

 

What.

 

_**Ham.Alex:** Text me and we can talk later :)_

 

Wait. No. No, no, no. It couldn't be. This had to be to good to be true!

 

...

 

"I got a pretty boy's phone number!"

 

I got Alex's phone number! And I had only known he existed for, like, what, an hour? We had only talked for ten minutes! And I already was crushing on him so hard!

 

This was so insane and so wonderful, I couldn't even get my head around it. Maybe it was just my imagination, but the whole situation felt... right. Like it was meant to be...

 

The again, it could have the rejection hotline.

 

I quickly typed the number into my phone and sent a short text message to check. In a surprising turn, Alex was the one to text back. _'_

_This is Alex right?'_

 

_'Yea. John right?'_

 

A rush of adoration flooded my system and I fell back down on my bed with a heavenly sigh. Today had definitely been a good day. I may have been thinking about it too greatly, but could you blame me? I got a pretty boy's phone number!

 

 


	3. 3

_**ALEX'** **S POV:** _

After I had given John my number, we texted back and forth for the next few days. We had just finished our conversation that morning when Lafayette walked into the kitchen to get a snack.

"Hey, Laf."

I sat on the kitchen counter while I took a break from texting John and took a bite of cookie butter toast, turning my phone off. It was a Friday morning and so far calm and dreary. Nobody had school that day because of some holiday nobody celebrated, but mom and dad had still gone out to work so Lafayette and I were home alone.

I took another bite as Laf replied. "Hey, Alex." He walked past me and opened up the cabinet and grabbed a box of wafer cookies. They were the pineapple flavored ones, and tasted disgusting to me.

He could have them all.

I watched as he walked back to the living room, where I could hear The Office playing on the TV, and noticed his hair was in a bun instead of its usual ponytail.

I thought of John at the remembrance of his hair, wondering if it was as soft as it looked. I sighed and took the final bite of my toast and jumped off the counter with my phone. I turned it back on and saw a new post notification from John.

I clicked on it, and found a greater discovery than any philosopher ever could.

It was a little baby picture of John! You could tell it was him by his freckles and familiar cheeky looking smile. He was being held by his mother and they were both laughing. What made it most adorable though was that John had his thumb in his mouth. I liked it, and surprised myself by saving it. It was just such an adorable picture.

_John: So, wyd now???_

I was starled by the sudden notification sound, but quickly clicked on it. I thought for a moment before remembering I had an English term to do. I was half way finished, but it was still a hassle. I scoffed as I jumped off the counter and dragged my feet over to the stairs. I texted him back when I got to my room,

_Me: Ugh, I have to do this stupid friccing english paper so rn I'm dying_

_John: Oh lol that sucks. So, do you have anything you gotta do tomorrow?_

A large, goofy smile formed on my face. I blushed, my hopes going way up.

_Me: Nothing.. why?_

The thirty seconds he didn't respond was pretty much agony, but when I finally saw the three speech dots, the world around me seemed to stop.

His message read,

_John: I'm sorry if this is weird, I know we literally just met a few days ago but you seem so fun and so awesome so I was wondering if we could maybe hang out or something this weekend? Its up to you_

I screamed. I screamed out of joy, and out of shock. Laf came into my room soon after, asking what was wrong. I couldn't say anything around him, and kept my mouth shut.

"I saw a spider."

He stared at me for a second before sighing, "And here I was thinking you were on fire or something." And walked off.

I chuckled and went back to the importance of the situation,

_Me: Sure :) Where at?_

**JONH'S POV:**

Holy shit.

Holy shit.

Holy _Shit_.

I had a date with Alex. I had a date with Alex, and I didn't even know his middle name. This had to be a dream. It felt like a dream.

 _Me:_ _Central Park, 2pm. We'll get lunch._

Why did I text him back? He was too good for me. I screamed at myself in my head to get a grip. What was I doing? I had just asked out a boy that I had only known for a week, and had never seen in real life, and he agreed.

Maybe I wasn't the only crazy one?

_Alex: Ok sounds fun. I'll meet you there._

This was just down right insane. But yet... It felt so right. I texted him back a response when I heard knocking on my closed door. Dad's voice came from the other end of it,

_"John, It's time time to get up!"_

I responded with a rambling 'I'm already up', and rapidly pressed my thumbs against the digital keyboard. The anticipation of the response I will receive leaves me desperate for a text back, though its only been minor seconds.

 _Alex: Don't bother with flowers, you alone will be fine. No need for fancy clothes either_ _. This won't be no dinner and dance in the moonlight biz, right?_

I laughed, denying it. I began to feel a little better, but was still shaking. After all, I had a date with Alexander!

My short excitement soon turned back into anxiety.

I began thinking of every possible scenario where Alex either stood me up, or laughed me out of New York. I started to wonder why he had even said yes. With the looks and personality he had, he could get practically anyone he wanted. So why'd he'd agree to go on a date with a loser like me?

I'm literally nobody.

I know it sounds dumb and goth, but it was true. I didn't do any clubs at school, I didn't do any sport besides baseball, I didn't have a job and the only 'adult' thing I had ever done was drinking and sex. Once.

Alexander looked like he had already found himself at only seventeen. He was a beautiful and kind person.

Me? I was just a stupid eighteen year old that acted like a dick to everyone and was addicted to my phone screen.  
Him? The purest soul I have ever met.

So why had he agree to hang out with me?

Maybe I was overthinking it all. I mean, _I_ was the one who asked him out. And he said yes. That had to have meant something. Maybe he really liked me?

'Maybe Alexander really liked me.' It played over and over in my head. A wave of hope and relief washed away my worries.

Later that day when I went back on to Alexander's Instagram, my smile came back as I saw his beautiful, porcelain- like face. Something else caught my eye, however. He had posted an Insta-story. Recently, too.

I decided to view it.

It was a video of him running around and freaking out and laughing nervously. The person behind the camera was giggling and snorting hysterically. Alex then turned to them,

"Dude, actually help me, I don't know what to do or what to say, I need... are you fucking filming me?" His voice was creepingly calm as he saw the camera.

The girl behind the camera snickered and admitted she was.

Alex stared at her for a moment before he finally called her a hoe, and the two broke out into a giggling fit. The video ended there.

I laughed at the remark, too. I thought about for a minute, until finally blushing as I figured out what he was freaking out about. Me.

He was worrying about our date. I wasn't the only one.

I'm not over exaggerating when I say I literally huffed and sighed in relief. I wasn't the only one who was panicking.

And it made me so fucking glad.


	4. 4

**ALEX'S POV:**

"You hoe."

Peggy's jaw dropped, and she nearly dropped the phone from laughing. I laughed, and ran over to take back my phone from her.

"I don't know why you are filming me in my time of desperation and angst, but like, this is fucking serious as cereal." I tossed my phone behind my onto my floor, and crossed my arms in a stubborn way.

Peggy srunched her face up before snickering, "You and your expressions." she said, shaking her head.

"No, seriously Pegs! I don't know what I'm going to do."

"Honey, don't you worry," She cooed as she cupped my face in her hands. "You've come to the master. You'll be alright. When is date again?"

"Tomorrow."

Peggy raised her eyebrows in shock and winced, before shaking her head. "Okay we can work with that. Whose the lucky gal or pal?" I picked up my phone again, and opened my home screen to show the screenshot of John I had as my lockscreen. I _totally_ wasn't a creep.

I showed Peggy, and she gasped. "Jesus christ, Hamilton! We gotta' get to work _right now!_ Look at that babe!" She grabbed my wrist and practically dragged me down the stairs.

"Hurry up or I'll make you drive!"

"Where the hell are we going? You're scaring the fuck out of me!"

Peggy flashed me an evil grin and pushed me toward the front door. "The mall."

I gasped, stopping my feet on the ground like a metaphorical break. " _No!_ "

Make no mistake, I may be feminine and a 'tomgirl', but I absolutely despised shopping. For one, I usually didn't have money for anything, and I always hated walking into shops just to have everybody stare at me because I'm a boy in 'girl' attire.

Peggy ignored my protests, and practically hoisted me over her shoulder. "Come on, It's not the end of the world. We can jam out to Billie Eilish in the car."

I crossed my arms stubbornly with a scrowl, and jumped out of her hold and dragged myself to the car. "Billie Eilish can suck my ass."

She almost looked shocked as we pulled out of the driveway, "I thought you loved her?"

"I do. But she can suck my ass. I wanna listen to Rent." I mumbled as I plugged in the axe cord and 'Seasons of Love' began to play. What a coincidence to listen to while getting ready for a date.

The drive to the mall was short, but long enough for us to scream-sing the entire song, and half of 'Never Getting Rid of Me' from Waitress.

I looked around at the crowded, loud, judgemental building, and prepared myself for the altogether personal hell that awaited me.

...

Okay, maybe that was a little tad traumatic.

Peggy grabbed my hand once more, and showed me into Forever 21, where  I was immediately bombarded with possible outfit choices.

"'Kay, here's what we got; The peachy tee and shortalls, The pastel purple hoodie and white shorts with fishnet tights. Or, the shoulderless long sleeve with black shorts and white zip-up. Choose wisely."

I blinked at her, not impressed. In all honesty, I didn't want to wear my usual, revealing attire for my first date with John. I tended to wear slightly show off clothes, but nothing that would get me called a slut or get some asshole slapping my ass. So, these outfits wouldn't do.

Staring at them for I while, my gaze switched from them and went across the room to a mannequin that was dressed in a glittery white sweater, and ripped light blue jeans.

It looked perfect for a first date in the park.

I guess I must have been drooling over it or something, because Peggy snapped her fingers in my face to get me out of it. "Earth to Alex!"

"Huh? Oh. Sorry, Pegs." I apologized quickly as I shook my head.

"Why'd you space out on me, dude?"

I took her chin in my hand, and turned her head to the outfit. Her hazelnut eyes seemed to sparkle brighter than the sweater,

"Yes! You perfect little ray of sunshine, you found the perfect clothes!" Peggy cheered as she picked me off my feet and spun me around. I giggled, and when she put me back down we booked it to the clothes rack near the mannequin.

Peggy pretty much ripped the sweater of its hanger, and tore the jeans away from its pile smd threw them at me. She then pushed me near the dressing rooms, and shoved me into an open one, and stood in front of the door.

"Now, put that on, come out, and strut yo' stuff."

"Never say that again, Schuyler."

"Bite me, Hamilton."

I rolled my eyes and chuckled as I pulled on the jeans, and then popped the sweater over my head. I took a deep breathe, and faced the mirror.

It looked very nice.

I smiled wide, and swung open the door. Peggy fell from the door as she was leaning on it, and her face landed in my chest. She apologized with a laugh and lifted her head up. She got a good look at me and I gave her a goofy smile.

" _Bitch._ " She exclaimed.

She looked me up and down for a minute, before meeting my eyes once again. "I'm thinking hoop earings, choker, and pinky ring for jewelry, and for shoes your white Vans."

I nodded. Peggy was always the fashion expert, considering she had once worked at popular clothing store, and now worked at her father's coffee shop; So she saw a lot of new styles and trends that people were wearing.

"And then you just leave your hair down, and do natural makeup- still glowing, but not noticable from a mile away. Oh, and wear your glasses. Glasses are a turn on."

I blushed and shoved her away playfully. "Stop playing... should I text him?" A stupid smile soon spreed wide on my face, and my blush didn't go away. Peggy gasped, her eyes suddenly filled with excitement, "Oh, my God, yes! Right now!" She emphasized the 'right now' as she practically bounced up and down.

I rolled my eyes as I pulled out my phone, and opened it to our chat.

Peggy then suddenly tugged on the sweater, "Wait, let me do it!" I gave her a look, and she scoffed. "Come on! I won't sext him or anything, I'll just say hi and shit. If you want, I'll even say it's me. Now, give me your phone to text this boy while you pay for your stuff." She handed me a fifty, and took my phone out of my hand. I didn't fight her on it, undressed, and went to pay for the clothes.

\--

**JOHN'S POV:**

I threw a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt on my bed, and nodded my head. 'That should be fine.'

I wasn't as nervous as I had been earlier. Ever since I watched the video of Alexander, it had eased my worries and first date jitters. Not completely, but relatively so. Knowing that I wasn't the only one made me less scared, and more excited.

Excited that Alexander was real.

The beauty behind the screen now was going to go on a date with me.

I was so thrilled, I contemplated on whether on not to brag to Hercules, but I knew if I did he was most likely to yap about it to Lafayette. And I really wasn't looking forward to being beat up by a toned, french, Zeus-type being who could probably knock all of my teeth out with one punch and have time to make a necklace out of them before I even got back up.

A chill ran up my spine, and I shook the thought out of my head.

I knew in the back of my mind that everything would probably go smoothly, but their was always that little voice in my head that taunted me with negative what if's. Ignoring it as much as I could, I picked up my phone and went to Insta. Just starring at Pretty boy made me relaxed.

And tomorrow I'd get to see him in person. I'd get to hear his probably smooth, soft-like-clouds voice.

I noticed as I scrolled through my own Instagram, I noticed my phone buzz.

A new message from Alex.

_Alex: Hey_ _daddy_

I literally yelped. My face turned bright red, and I didn't know what to think or say.

_Me_ _: What?_

_Alex: Lol, I'm sorry._

_Alex: Btw this isn't Alex, I'm his friend Peggy._

A wave of relief washed over me as my confusion and bashfullness drown out of me.

_Me: Oh ok. Phew, lol. So why do u have Alex's phone?_

_Alex: He's buying clothes rn so I took his phone and started fuccing around_

_Me: Why's he buying clothes?_

_Alex: For your date, stupid_

Fucking, duh. Man was I oblivious.

_Alex: Oh! And heres some info abt Lexy, He loves bubble tea, hates rain, and you're going to bring him a rose_

_Me:_ _He hates rain? And you want me to bring him a rose?_

_Alex: Ever heard of stop asking questions?_ _Yes!_

_Me: Alright, Alright, I'll get him a rose._ _But what if it rains?_

_Alex: pray_ _to God it doesn't._

What the hell was that supposed to mean?


	5. 5

**JOHN'S POV:**

Should I have been stressing out on how to impress Alexander all night? Probably not. Had I, though? Yes, definitely.

It was now Saturday and I had hardly gotten any sleep at all last night. I was too excited and scared to meet Alex- let alone go on a date with him.

As soon as it hit six o'clock, I jumped out of my bed and booked it downstairs to the livingroom.

There, I was surprised to see my little sister half-asleep on the couch and fiddling with one of her barbie doll's hair.

"Mary, What are you doing up so early? It's Saturday." I asked.

Mary mumbled, "I wanted to watch TV, but nothin' is on." I walked over to her and saw she had _that_ look in her eye. "Why didn't you go back to bed?" I said as I sat down next to her.

She was quiet for a minute and twirled the doll's hair with her tiny fingers before turning to me.

"It was dark. 'Got scared." The southern accent lingered, though if she were older she'd probably have lost it by now for the most part. Just like I did.

I chuckled. I was sort of happy that Mary was still a little kid. All she had to do was worry about the dark and playground bullies that _I_ would deal with. Not first dates. And she wouldn't have to, _ever_. If you catch my drift.

"You were scared?"

Mary nodded slightly. I picked her up off her seat and placed her in my lap. "Do you want to stay with me?" I heard a small whimper, and felt her nodding her head against my chest. "Hey, It's okay. You can sleep in my bed." I carried her up back the stairs and took her to my room, before placing her on my bed where I would usually sleep. She still looked a little frightened, so I curled up next to her. "Jacky?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are you awake now?" She asked in a small voice. I hesitated before just blurting out the short answer. "I just woke up early."

Mary nodded, and I could tell she was fighting off a yawn. I pulled out my phone to play some of her music she begged ne to download, but when I opened it, I was on Alexander's Instagram feed.

"Who's that?" "Alex, 'member? I showed you and Dad."

Her face lit up, "Oh, yeah... He's pretty."

"I know. I'm meeting him today at the park-" I immediately regretted mentioning anything at all to her. She perked up, probably wide awake then. "I wanna' come!" She jumped up and down on her knees, and tried crawling on top of me. "No, You can't come." I said bluntly. Her face dropped. "Why~?" She whined.

"Because you can't~" I mocked.

She put her face into the crook of my neck, and whined and groaned. "I'll bring you to the park tomorrow after your sunday school." I sighed, rolling my eyes at the toddler as I pulled my blanket up to her middle half. Her Sunday school only lasted for four hours, and all the kids really did were color in scenes from Bible coloring books, and watch VeggieTales and sang songs about God. The park was a good end to a Sunday.

I was happy it wasn't one of those churches that brainwashed people into thinking gays and other LGBTQA+ people weren't all going to hell for not being able to control their sexual orientation or gender identity. In fact, Mary's Sunday school teacher had _hella_ gay vibe to her.

Mary eventually stopped her whining as she had fallen asleep after we made our promise about the park. I followed soon after, the whole night without sleep finally catching up to me.

**_(Timeskip)_ **

I woke up to Mary squishing my cheeks together; something she would have normally had done to wake me up.

She herself looked up and awake by then, while I probably looked how I felt- dead.

"Jacky! Jacky!" Mary whisper shouted. I slowly rose up like Frankenstein's Monster, and ruffled her hair as I yawned. "What's wrong?"

"What time is it?"

I shrugged and reached for my phone, only to be blinded by the sudden brightness. I squinted my eyes from the bright, white screen and read that it was now noon.

Well, fuck

"Sh- Crap!" I quickly changed my wording before Mary could go on and blab the bad word to mom and blame it on me.

Jumping out from my covers and into my bathroom, I almost broke my shower taps as I turned them all the way and stepped in- not caring what temperature it was.

I scrubbed and washed like I was meeting the Queen. When in reality, I felt as if I was. Alex could definitely had passed for royalty. 

After shampooing my hair like crazy, I quickly and messily got dressed into my purple baseball style shirt with my dad's college mascot on it, and jumped around on one foot as I struggled to put my jeans on.

I brushed my teeth rapidly, and the outcome from the toothpaste and saliva foam made me look like I was a wild beast infected with rabies. I washed my face, and destroyed my hair and ran downstairs- almost completely forgetting about Mary. I ran back into my room, and snatched her off the bed. "Come on!" I breathed out heavily. Mary was giggling when I ran down the stairs, making it like a bumpy pony ride for her.

"Go watch TV." I said as I put her down. She obeyed and clicked on her favorite channel, and I ran through the kitchen to the back hall to get my shoes.

Mom, who was making lunch in the kitchen, gave me a look between worry and confusion. "Where are you going, John?"

I didn't bother telling her as I ran out the back door, thanking God that I had remembered my keys.

I drove to the nearest flower shoppe, and practically threw my money at the poor old woman who was ringing me up for the single rose I was going to bring for Alex. Of course, his beauty deserved a whole bouquet- but the rose would have to do.

On my way to the park, I probably violated at least a few traffic laws before I parked at a near by café across the street from the park. They would most likely have bubble tea there.

As I walked through the doors, I inhaled the aroma of caffeine and coffee beans. It made me sick. After all, I was never a coffee lover.

I stood in the surprisingly long line, just to order one drink of bubble tea.

I prayed that Alexander liked it for a reason, because I had never had it before and didn't want to waste my money on some garbage drink.

After a little while, one of the cashiers booming voice caught my attention, "Alexander Hamilton?"

I looked over at the check out and took a double take.

It was Alex.

He snatched his drink off of the counter excitedly, and handed the man the money. I stared at him with wide eyes and an open mouth like an idiot as he weqnt to leave the shoppe, before shouting a bit too loudly before I could stop myself.

"Alex?"


	6. 6

**ALEX'S POV:**

After the shopping, and beating up Peggy for making John think I called him 'daddy', I was set and ready for the morning to come.

I woke up around seven, not a regular thing for me to do on a Saturday- but I guess my excitement may have woken me up. I dreaded having to wait the seven hours until John and I were to meet at the park, and just wanted it to be two o'clock then.

I was slumped on the couch with nothing to do while Lafayette was at the gym, me passing up the usual offer. Mom had gotten me a coffee before she left for work, and I drank it with a pout.

Why couldn't time just go faster? The spectrum of time and space had always been so fucked up for me.

Currently, I was watching some CW drama, and waited for noon to poke its head around. I wasn't paying attention to the show as some big secret was revealed, too preoccupied by my phone. I, of course, was googling John Laurens.

Just to be sure I wasn't about to be catfished.

But, sure enough, I got links to Instagram, Snapchat, also twitter. And, hell, even facebook. I was relieved to say the least when I saw his face on ever page. I quickly added him on snap, and followed his twitter before I looked back up at the TV to see Archie Andrews getting beat up during a prison dog fight.

I went for the remote and switched it off. God, why was everything so boring this morning?

It was around ten o'clock when I was munching on some avocado toast, when Peggy texted me.

_PETTY_ _Schuyler: Are you getting ready yet?_

_Me: no, I'm not supposed to be at the park for another four hours_

_PETTY Scuyler: Good lord, man! Do you know nothing about highschool boys!?_

Me: _Probably, considering I'm one of them. You literally called me man._

I rolled my eyes at her useless ranting text messages about how John would probably be early, and I should be too. But, as much as I wanted to leave, I couldn't.

It was raining outside, and I couldn't leave until twelve- when it was estimated to clear up. Trust me, I wanted to make a mad dash to the park right then and there, but my fucking Pluviophobia wanted me home.

_PETTY Schuyler: Want me to come over and help you get ready?_

_Me: You're already outside, aren't you?_

_PETTY Schuyler: Yes. Yes, I am._ _You know me so well :)_

I walked to the livingroom, and opened the front door. As expected, Peggy waltzed in like she was the guest of honor at the royal ball.

"Sup, stalker." I greeted sarcastically. She scanned me up and down before nodding her head, as if she were agreeing with someone. "Yeah, I can work with that," she said. "Come on, Alex." Peggy grabbed my hand and began to drag me upstairs.

"Wait, my toast!" I cried, trying to break free to get back to my precious food. She yanked my arm harder, surprisingly not pulling it out of its socket. "Forget the damn toast! We got a date to get ready for!"

Peggy forced me to get dressed as soon as she pushed me into my room, and dug out all of my make up and even stole my mother's curling iron from my parents bathroom.

"Alex, everybody already knows that you are hot as fuck without makeup- now let's show those guru bitches you're not one to be underestimated!" She exclaimed as she dabbed the beauty blender on my face.

I scoffed and chuckled. Peggy had a great way of saying compliments in the most concerning fashion. One of the reasons why we were best friends.

I closed my eyes as she put the contour powder, "Thanks, Pegs. So, what's up with Angie and Liz lately?"

That should keep her busy for a while.

My assumptions where proven right as she began to ramble and rant about how she always felt excluded from her family just because she was the youngest. She kept herself busy, though. When she wasn't hanging out with me, she was with her boyfriend, ***** Stephen. They had been dating since freshman year, and would probably be together for as long as time would tell as their relationship was one of the strongest and closest bonds I had ever seen.

I wonder if John and I could ever be like that-

_What?_

I blushed at the thought, and tried not to smile as Peggy applied the lip gloss. "So, how's it feel to know that you get to go on a date with Mr. Laurens?" Peggy asked out of the blue as she made her eyebrows bounce.

"Shut up," I said, lightly punching her. "I don't know. I mean it feels nice. After all, he is cute... and nice... and funny, and he's like super passionate about the same stuff I'm passionate about, and he plays baseball and he asked me out and..."

I rambled for the rest of the time it took her to finish my makeup and hair, Peggy occasionally agree to something I said or reassuring me that she was listening by letting out a small hum.

After an hour, I was ready.

"Okay, there. We're finished!~" Peggy exclaimed in a sing-song voice. "Good job on the hair, Peggy. I love it."

"No need to thank me, just doing my duty of being your best friend and a queen of style. Now, It's 11:40, if we stop at 'Bublé', then you'll still be on time to the park. Get your bag."

I rolled my eyes with a sarcastic 'Okay, _mom_ ' before grabbing my handbag backpack before sliding down the stairs ramp.

When we got to Peggy's car, I saw Lafayette pulling into the driveway as we left it. I yelled at Peggy to speed up, laughing when she screamed at me to stop yelling at her when she was in a school zone.

We parked across the street from the coffee shop, and I almost was hit by a car as I ran to get in line to order my precious Boba tea.

After ordering, I waited by the bay window with Peggy for my order to be called up. She was scrolling through her Twitter and twittering about literally everything that was happening around her. A few minutes passed, and my tea was ready.

I excitedly paid the cashier and waved over to Peggy to come back to the car with me, when I heard somebody call my name.

"Alex?" They said as I opened the door slightly, making the bell ring. I stopped dead in my tracks and turned around.

Well, damn.

There he was. It was John Laurens, standing in front of me. He was behind a screen, and he wasn't just a faint voice in mere text messages anymore.

He was real.

And boy, was he a looker.

"John? Uhm... Hi!" I said, maybe a little too excitedly. I took a sip of my drink to take attention away from my obvious blush. He chuckled softly, and I bet myself I had never heard such a charming laugh. "What're you doing here?"

"I'm just, y'know- getting a drink, Killing some time before the park... the usual." I rocked myself back and forth on my heals before adjusting my glasses, "What about you?"

"I heard you liked bubble tea, so I came to get you some. Oh, right! And, uh... Well, here's this since you're here now."

His face was almost as red as the rose he handed me that I hadn't even noticed was in his hand. I took it with a shaking hand, and smiled at him. "I- Uh, Thank you, John."

A few seconds of awkward silence passed by before he breathed out a sigh with a nervous laugh, "Oh, my god. I'm so sorry, this is so awkward. It's just- You're real, and you're..." John stopped midsentence before he blurted out something I didn't, how you say; expect.

"You're so pretty."

My eyes widened a bit, and I smiled like an idiot for about a good five seconds before John looked down at his feet almost shamefully, "Sorry if I weirded you out-"

"No, no! You're fine! And thank you for the rose."

"No problem. So, uhm, since we're both here, do you want to head down to the park?"

I smiled sheepishly, "I'd like that."

John once again sighed in relief and gave a skittish smile, "Okay!- Uhm, okay great." He covered up his voice crack with a lower pitched voice, and puffed out his chest.

I chuckled and waved goodbye to Peggy, who was promptly mouthing the words 'I ship it'. We walked out of the café, and walked alongside the streets' sidewalk to the park.

I could already tell I was going to enjoy his company.

**(*Stephen Is NOT Peggy's cousin in this story, just some random guy who I probably won't even bring up in the story again)**


	7. 7

**JOHN'S POV:**

After Alexander and I had unexpectedly met up at the coffee shop, we had walked down the road to the nearby park like we had originally planned to do. It was strange, though. We had begun talking like we were old friends catching up on things, not awkward or anything like I had expected myself to do.

Well, maybe I had been a tad awkward, but that was besides the point. Alex hadn't seemed to notice me sweating by the time we sat down by a bench under big oak tree, and were talking about anything that came to mind.

I addressed the obvious elephant in the room after laughing at some stupid joke I had made, "So... first date. How's this supposed to roll out?" Alex stared at me for a moment, before letting out the most adorable snort. "That's a good question to ask. I usually don't get asked out that often." He said as a matter-of-factly. I immediately put up my hands in defense while rambling out an apology. "Sorry, uh, If I'm making you feel-"

"No, It's okay. I said it, you didn't. It's all good," Alex cut me off. "But to answer your question, I think we should start by a conversation starter."

I had to laugh. We had already had plenty of conversations over text- some useless, all entertaining. Alexander smiled at me in confusion, tilting his head a bit. "Oh, It's nothing. It's just that we've already had a couple of good ones. What's more to talk about-"

Alexander cut me off once again, with a serious haze in his deep, doe brown eyes. His face became grave, "Why did you ask me out, John?"

I must have looked as shocked as I felt, because he suddenly looked guilty and nervous. "I mean, its not like I didn't want you to. You don't have to tell me." I put on the most serious and gentle expression I could muster.

"Alex. Just take a look at yourself. Your personality, humor, passions, and not to mention, your beauty. How could I have not asked you out? You're kind of amazing."

There was a long pause between us, and Alexander was blushing terribly with a weak smile on his face. He pushed hair behind both of his ears and chuckled a bit. "Well, okay then." Alex adorably giggled. "Thank you, John."

I let out a huff of relief and covered up my previous nervous expression with a cocky smile, "Your turn. Tell me why you agreed."

Alexander looked a little surprised, but gave me a smile back. He sat up straight and looked out at the view of the rest of the park's land in front of us. "Alright. I agreed because I wanted to. It felt so amazing texting back when you asked me. I can't explain it, but, saying _yes_ just felt right. I know it's a lot to say on a first date, but... It's true."

Needless to say I was stunned. In all honesty I wanted scream. But I couldn't put my finger on why. Alex smirked at me as he finished, probably expecting the moment of silence he caused from me. After a minute, I inhaled deeply and gave him a stupid smile. "Christ," I sighed. "Thank you."

He smiled, "De Rien."

I blinked at him. "Where'd you learn French?" I asked, before mental face palming myself for forgetting the fact that he grew up with a french-speaking brother and was taking french in school. Alex giggled, not answering as my bright red face showed he didn't need to.

"You're stupid." Alex joked, chuckling like a child. It reminded me of my sister's laugh whenever Tom's plans would backfire on myself instead of Jerry.

I chuckled, gazing into his ocean eyes. "Don't remind me."

After a few more minutes of awkward chuckling and blushing from the both of us, Alexander flashed his head around and his face lit up. "Look!" He exclaimed, "Ain't that neat?"

He pointed to a parade happening from across the road, and watched it for a minute before turning back to me, "I've always liked parades." He said, now messing with the ring on his pinky finger. I scooted closer to him, trying not to do so much that it was noticeable.

"Why's that?" I asked. It seemed he already knew the answer down to heart, as he began talking like he was reading aloud a book in a soft and smooth voice. "They have the power to make anyone happy. The performers, the crowds, the people watching on TV. I think it's pretty cool."

I smiled, nodding my head along as he spoke. I didn't feel the need to mention the protest parades, fearing that he'd get uncomfortable. I stayed silent and took in every word he said.

Not a usual thing for me to do.

"Man, you have a deep point of view about happiness. Good for you, Hamilton." I jokingly praised, though I wasn't really. Alexander blushed and lightly punched my arm.

"Says you Mr. Depressed-black-screen- snapchats."

My eyes widened, I had forgotten all about those embarrassing 'deep' quotes and tags. I had forgotten about social media entirely. Also not normal for me. I had only been around him for half an hour, and already Alex was already making me see a different, better side of me.

But it was too soon.

_(Timeskip: A few hours later)_

"No, totally! I literally had to gulg the entire can before my dad caught me!" I watched as Alexander laughed hysterically, ending my story.

He wrapped his hands around his stomach and hunched over, but instead of vomiting, all he did was giggle and laugh. After a short while, he sat back upright and wiped a tear from his eye. "Oh, Christ. And you were how old?" He asked me, still giddy from the laughter.

"Sixteen."

"You've been sneaking beers since then?" "Well, when you say it like that, it sounds like I'm an alcoholic." Alexander laughed again, shaking his head. I waved him off, jokingly turning my head away from him.

When I did, I noticed the sun was setting. Being Fall, the sun would set early than usual- making night set around eight o'clock. It was around 7:20, just the perfect time for the sun to begin to go down.

"You like sunsets?" I heard Alexander ask.

I jumped a bit at the sudden voice, turning back to him. He had now probably thought I was girly or a gloomy dude. I denied it at first until he puffed.

"Really? That sucks. I love them. Sunrises are probably the best though. They're so pretty. Sometimes, I like to wake up just before the sun rises, when the sky is the perfect mixture of pink and yellow, and take a walk around the neighborhood just before my parents wake up."

I stared at him for a minute, not daring to blink. Alex smiled a bit and blushed. "Anyway, It's getting late. I should probably head home." He sighed. "Do you need a ride?" I immediately asked, maybe a little too desperately. He looked surprised, but nodded. "I was going to call my brother, but sure."

"Awesome."

By the time Alexander and I had gotten back to my car, the sun had completely set and the moon was beginning to rise up. Him and I were still chatting and laughing, though he kept yelling at me to look at the road whenever I spent more than a minute gazing at him.

"Alright, alright. Which street do I turn down?" I asked as we were about the stop about to stop at a read light turning lane. Alexander took a moment to answer before he spoke, "Turn left and go straight." I could hear the smirk in his voice, but followed the directions. As I did, I noticed that we weren't in a usual downtown neighborhood, or even a sketchy one- But driving up a closed off grass field.

"Stop here." Alex said, sounding like everything was normal. Confused, I took me keys out of the ignition and put it in park.

"Come on," he encouraged, "Come with me."

Alexander then got out of the car, waving me to follow. I furrowed my brow at him, getting a weird feeling in my stomach. I ignored it though, and got out as well.

He grabbed my hand, and dragged me over farther away from my car. I was too flustered by his hand touching mine that I didn't even hear what he was telling me. Until finally, I snapped out of it.

"John," Alex said. "I want you to look up."

I did hesitantly, but what I saw made me hypnotized by its sight. "Woah." I said in awe.

The whole sky was full of stars. I could even make out constellations, and the moon was a greater light source then my car's old headlights.

"Isn't it beautiful? The stars?" I heard Alexander ask. I nodded, still gazing at the bright, navy sky. It really was beautiful. The stars covered every inch of the sky's walls as far as the eye could see, and made our side of the world a cold and a nice and dim color to act as a substitute for the bright sun.

Alex stared up at the sky with a look of admiration in his deep, soul brown eyes that sparkled just like the stars. His glasses shined in the moonlight, and his smooth skin seemed to glow. His hair showed every individual hair, honestly making him look even more natural and gorgeous than in regular lighting, and his lip balm showed off on his pink lips.

He turned to me, the same lips forming into a smile.

It's too soon. It's too soon.

I walked closer, his beauty calling me over like a siren's enchanted spell. His smile faded, Alexander almost looked like he was trying to detect something. Alex stepped a bit closer as well, blushing a small pink tone that shined bright in the moon's brightness.

_It's too soon._

I crouched down a bit to his level and met his eyes. They fluttered, his lashes an inch away from brushing against my cheek. Alex turned his head to the side a bit as I moved my face closer to his.

I felt my lips touch against his own soft and plump lips, and didn't stop to open my eyes that I had tightly shut. Once Alexander had gently pulled away, I opened my eyes wide and saw his face was colored a bright red. I guess mine was too, because my head felt hot and I began to sweat again in the now cold air.

"Oh, shit, I am so sorry, Alex-!" I was cut off by his lips crashing into mine once more. My face turned even hotter. As we pulled away, Alexander let out a huff of air that showed in the air due to the condensation.

"I'm not." He admitted as his eyes fluttered once more.

I stared him at the pretty boy, amazed by the statement. A goofy smile spread across my face, and I let out a small snicker. Alex raised his brows, but soon gave off a grin as he pushed his hair out of his face. "Alright, alright. Kiss booth is closed. Let's head back to your car." Nodding, I followed him as he began to walk back over to my car. As I prepared to unlock the car doors and was get in, I heard a sudden thud on the front hood, and looked up to see Alexander was there sitting on my car.

Needless to say I joined him.

"So, why'd you take me up here? This ain't your house I'm pretty sure." I smirked, getting a giggle out of him. "No, its not. But it is better than going home so quick."

That made me worry, "Why? What's going on at home? N-not that its any of my business or anything..." "Oh, nothing's going on at home. I just love coming here at night. And I uh, thought you might like it."

I had to laugh, "So you always come here to watch the stars at night, and go on morning walks to watch the sun rise. Come on now, that's just adorable." I teased. Alexander blushed and shoved my arm lightly. "Shut up."

We looked at each other for a moment before I felt something touch my hand. I looked down and saw Alex's thumb on my hand, his ring shining. I looked back up at him to see his face was inches from mine.

My face became warm again, but I didn't hesitate to kiss back as he reeled me in. I pushed my lips into his a little more forward then the time before, making Alex squeak in surprise before he giggled. We pulled away, this time feeling more natural. "Woah-" Alex shushed me, and stared at me not through the eyes, but looked all around my face it seemed like. He finally grinned and met my eyes.

"Sixty. You have sixty freckles on your face." He said as if he were reading out the numbers to pi. I scoffed, laughing a bit. "I get 'em from my mother. She's probably got more than a million on just her arms and face."

Alex hummed, "My birth mom had freckles. I never got them, though. I always liked counting them."

There was a hint of sadness in his voice, as well a remembrance. I didn't ask him what I was wondering, in case it offended him. Alex continued to smile and let out a sigh. "Do you know what time it is? I left my phone in the car."

I checked my phone, surprised to see it was now aroun nine. Alex seemed surprised too, but rolled his eyes to himself. "Well, I gotta get home now. My parents have probably called the cops and swat team by now." He jumped off the hood, and landed on his feet.

I chuckled while I fumbled to get my keys out of my pocket.

The ride to Alexander's apartment was filled with giddy laughter from the both of us and awful jokes from me. After a little while, I clicked on the radio button, and spun the channel dial to a rap song. I turned it off after watching Alexander's reaction to the honesty violent chorus, depicting of a murder scene the sing supposedly caused. He nervously chuckled, before laughing as I turned the channel to some breakup song by your average every pop singer ever.

When I pulled up to a neighborhood, Alexander pointed down the road to the apartment complexes, and guided me to apartment 51. Once Alexander pointed out the apartment, I unlocked the car door for him to get out. He unbuckled, about to say goodbye, before letting out a gasp. "Oh, god."

I looked to were he was staring, and saw that the first door next to the stairway to the next story was open, and the lights from the inside were shadowing a tall and cross- looking figure.

"Thank you so much for today, John. It's been amazing." Alexander gave me another grin, looking sorry though as he fumbled around with a still upright, blood red rose. "No problem. I'll see you later? " I asked hopefully. He smiled, nodding as he opened the door, but not before he gave me another soft peck on the cheek.

As the boy walked away, he waved goodbye, before turning and not looking back.

I didn't stop to think about the beating I would probably get from Lafayette next week as I watched as Alexander's sweater sparkled in the light.

The drive home for me was just as silent and fast as the drive to the park had been. Only difference was I couldn't stop smiling.

Mom was there to let me in when I got back to my own house, and asked me how my day at the park had been. My flushed pink face must of given it away as she gave me a jokeful look, and sent me to the dinner table, where only my plate was waiting for me.


	8. 8

**ALEX'S POV:**

"It's not that big of a deal!"

"It is too a big deal!"

"You're overthinking it! I was with a friend!" "The only thing I'm overthinking is how I'm gonna kill that guy!"

"You're bluffing!" I continued to argue with Lafayette as he stormed around the living room. He was doing exactly as I expected him to do- _Overreact_.

He cursed under his breath and flashed his head up back to me, "Trust me, Alex. John is not a good match for you. You and him have only know each other for... What, a day!? Besides, he such a bad dude. And I don't mean that in a 'hot' way." He mocked, putting quotation marks around hot.

I scoffed, a witty remark rolling off my tongue before I could stop myself. "John is not like that. He's an amazing guy! And It's been longer than just one day." I mumbled how it was actually two weeks, but bit my lip as he continued to yell at me.

" ***** Vous le connaissez à peine! John Laurens est un imbécile total!" He yelled, his original tongue coming back to him. Occasionally, Lafayette would have his french slips.

He was born in France but orphaned almost immediately and was raised in a small orphanage until our parents decided they wanted to adopt a kid after Mom couldn't have her own- then they got Lafayette, who was nine at the time.

Then a year later, they decided to adopt me from Puerto Rico, when I was about six or seven. Though Lafayette had known me since I was five as the adoption process took a literal lifetime. And ever since then, Lafayette had been the total stereotypical overprotective brother to me.

"I know him better than you!" I said, tired of it all. "You're always like this. This isn't even about John, is it? Admit it! You hate to see me happy!" I barked, accusingly yelling at him.

"That's not true! I want you happy, Alex! I just hate all those dumbasses you date!" " _Who_!? You always scare them away, ever since middle school!" My voice broke, and I felt tears threaten to fall from the corners of my eyes. Gil unsurprisingly noticed, and his hard and stone expression softened. "That's not true and you know it-"

"Well fine! I'll just stay your annoying little brother and go play with toy trucks and dinosaurs for the rest of my life!" My face had become red by now, and once sorrowful tears became hot with anger as they burned rolling down my cheeks. I quickly got up from the couch and booked it to my room.

Stomping up the stairs, I screamed at him to get out of my life and slammed the door behind me. I slid down and hugged my knees against my chest and began to sob. My brother had no right to control any aspects of my life- especially my romanticall life. I couldn't understand why he couldn't just fuck off. Yet, he stayed and bothered. It wasn't even what he did. What always ticked me off was that he legitimately thought he was allowed to just because he was my older brother.

Lafayette had always been like this. Ever since I could remember, he had been teaching people not to mess with his family- especially me. It was sweet when we were kids, but now it was a bad habit of his. I just wanted a life without him sometimes. I know it's a cruel thought, but I would be lying if I said I didn't imagine a world where I could be happy without any obstacles in the way.

After what felt like an eternity of crying, I wiped my eyes of tears and pulled out my phone to get my mind off of things. I noticed a few texts from Peggy asking about my date and teasing me.

I smiled weakly, but didn't reply to any of them. Talking about _him_ at the moment didn't leave a good feeling in my stomach like it usually would have. With everything that had just occurred, texting about to John wouldn't be the best. If anything were to help, it would him there with me, just to comfort me.

Maybe even kissing me again?

I blushed at my own thought, snickering a bit. Even though we had only kissed twice, it had been magnificent. The way his lips felt against mine, the way the moon made his eyes sparkle with the stars- Everything had been wonderful in that moment.

Then it was over.

And if I thought about him, it would just make me want to see his stupid, beautiful face again. And I couldn't just run away for some guy I had just met, it wasn't a Disney movie.

But still, after the night John and I had together, it felt as if we really knew each other as well as we knew ourselves. The kiss had connected us, it felt. God, it sounded corny.

There was a chance he had done it and regretted it, but that thought didn't linger in my mind as well as knowing how much I enjoyed it and how I wanted to do it again. But knowing Lafayette, it would be difficult to do.

I let out another sob at the vision of a disgusted look on his beaten face as he glared at me, thinking I was to blame for Laf's rage. I imagined myself sobbing myself to sleep, and Lafayette acting as if everything were fine and normal and his knuckles weren't bruised or red, but strong and sharp as ever.

I was too busy sobbing to notice my phone was ringing until I looked up to wipe my eyes and face with my sleeve, and saw it was John calling me. I slightly panicked while fumbling to answer it, and tried to put on the most neutral voice I could muster from my raspy and sad tone.

_"Hello?"_

I sniffled, mentally slapping myself for letting more tears slip. "Hi, John."

 _"Hey, Alex, I- Uhm... are you okay? You sound like you're crying?"_ He asked, sounding concerned. I smiled, but faked it as if I were watching a sad movie that got to me. He didn't seem convinced, and continued to try to learn about understand my honesty pitiful situation. I continued to push it until he finally stopped trying to get it out of me.

_"Alright. Well, I'm sorry you're sad. Is there anything I can do for you?"_

"Well, I'd ask you to watch with me, but Lafayette's stuck on defend and protect mode while my parents are out on a date. Lord forbid I go on one, right?" I chuckled weakly.

There was a moment of silence after that, and as I went to ask if John was still on the line before he cleared his throat and spoke, _"Oh, yeah totally, But uhm... That's actually why I called you. I wanted to ask you something."_ Anxiety lingered in his tone, making me all but anticipated.

"What's up?" I asked while trying to make myself sound calm, though every possible answer and response ran through my mind- both good and bad scenarios.

_"Well, I was just wondering- Since we, y'know just went on a date... and kissed,"_

"Yes...?"

" _Do you want to, uhm, maybe..._ " John stopped, making my heart skip a beat before the phone showed his sadly altered but nonetheless charming voice. He took a deep breath and cleared his throat, " _Go out with me? Like, boyfriends? Multiple dates? -_ "

I cut him off with an abrupt laugh. I laughed as John panicked on the phone, frantically apologizing over and over again and probably punching himself for 'messing up'. "No, no, John. I'm laughing 'cause I'm happy! And I'm a condescending bitch. But, yes- I'd love that." I said gleefully, making him sigh in relief on the other line.

 _"R-really? Oh, wow, Alex. That's... That's, uh, great! So... we're dating?"_ John asked, sounding as anxious as before but all the while excited. "Yeah, I guess we are."

John Laurens was my boyfriend now.

It lingered in my head for what felt like an eternity of deep thought before a knock came at my door, jolting me out of my head. Quickly saying I had to go, hung up and hastily rubbed the tears out of my eyes and blinked as I threw my phone on my desk and opened the door to see the one and only helicopter brother.

Lafayette stood at the door, holding Bebe in his arms and looking guilty. He went to speak, before closing his mouth and repositioning Bebe, so that she was in front of his face.

He moved her paws around a little bit, and cleared his throught; "Laffy's real sorry, Alex. He wants you to forgive him so you two can be cool again," Lafayette put on an annoying highpitched, childish voice and continued despite my unimpressed look.

"He just doesn't want you to get hurt, so he hurts them first. But Laffy loves you, Lexy." I stood silent, still angry but no longer fuming. I guess that was somewhat sincere. Bebe purred as Lafayette gently placed her in my arms, and smiled at me, "There's ice cream downstairs. Strawberry?"

Thinking over his words and his way of an apology, I slowly let my guard down and took up his offer.

I hated myself for letting him get the best of my judgement, and huffed. "I'm only going for the ice cream." I said, trying to fight off a smile. Lafayette scoffed and ran to catch up with me as I walked down the stairs with Bebe still in my arms.

Later, as I put another spoonful of Ben and Jerry's ice cream in my mouth, I thought about John. And it be said, strawberries had nothing on his taste. I smirked at the thought and put my now empty ice cream bowl down on the counter. Picking up my phone, I decided to share some news with my friends.

I deeply regretted making the groupchat as soon as I saw who I had sent the following text to. The moment I clicked send was the exact same moment I saw John was apart of the chat. I cringed, embarrassed on a whole other level.

_Me: Guuuuyyyssss! I got a mans now and its pure bliss_

_To: PETTY Schuyler, Eliza™, Mari-ahhh, John_

Not only had I texted John about himself, but I had put him in a groupchat with my _friends_. He was sure to be as bombarded with questions and threats with them as he would with Lafayette. Before any ringtones could go off, I silenced my phone and muted the chat on for 24 hours.

I huffed and slumped on the couch as Lafayette got back from putting our bowls into the sink. "I'm going to bed, goodnight. And don't stay up too late." He ruffled my hair and handed me the remote. I rolled my tired eyes, "I'm going to bed, too. Goodnight."

With that I dragged myself upstairs while my cat followed behind ensuite. By the time I got back to my bed, I was too tired to notice I had left my phone on the couch.

I'd read the chat later.  
  


**(*You hardly know him! John Laurens is a total idiot! - Google Translate French)**


	9. 9

**JOHN'S POV:**

It seemed as if I had been staring at my phone for hours, debating on whether to call Alex, or let him be. On one hand, he could say 'yes'. On the other, I could be rejected. The pressure was greater than any type I felt with taking any Math test.

The other night had been the best time I had had in a while. Alexander was one of the sweetest guys I had ever met. Not to mention attractive, even without makeup or 'feminine' clothes.

I just wanted to see him again _without_ talking either through a screen, or digital messaging. But I also didn't want another amazing, but all the while short date. I wanted a relationship with Alexander.

See, I had never really been one to ask out people. I was never an attention seeker. Maybe it was the anxiety of rejection or fear of getting laughed at, or maybe I just really hated every other guy I knew. But I realized after I had begun to talk to Alexander that he brought out the best in people. It sounded cheesy, but it was nothing but true. I had found I wasn't exactly as introverted as I had thought, due to Alex.

Even though it had only been two weeks, and we had only met in person once- I knew Alex was the one I needed most. He wasn't Francis, he wasn't James, and he _certainly_ wasn't Martha- a 'girlfriend' I thought I liked back when I thought I was straight. Boy, was I wrong.

If Alexander was the one for me, I couldn't just let him go. And he was. I _knew_ he was.

Before I had even realized what I was doing, I had grabbed my phone and speed dialled his number. I finally came to my senses as I heard it ring against my ear and send off a bit of a vibration. Quickly realizing that I had just called _the_ pretty boy, I began to panic. And it didn't help when Alex answered.

The line was silent for a moment besides our breathing, before I decided to break the calm, yet dreadful quiet.

"Hello?" I asked, rolling my eyes at my own unsteady voice. I had sounded like the idiot in class who answers a question with a question. **(A/N: AKA me lol)**

Alexander greeted me back, the phone making his voice sound automated. He spoke as if he were smiling, but something didn't sound right in his speech. There was a hint of difference in his voice, something that sounded all but cheerful.

That's when I heard him sniffle.

"Hi, Alex. I-" I stopped when I heard it again, and stubbled on my words once I refocused on myself speaking, "Uhm... are you okay? You sound like you're crying?"

_"Oh, its nothing. I'm just watching a really, really sad movie. It got to me."_

I could tell he was lying but went along with it after bugging him to tell me the truth of the matter for a few tries. Alex chuckled a bit, and I cleared my throat. "Alright. Well, I'm sorry you're sad. Is there anything I can do for you?" My tone made me sound pathetic, making me want to beat myself up. I stayed quiet however as Alex mentioned something about his brother and I instantly knew what was wrong.

And my question certainly wasn't going to help Lafayette in the situation.

I mustered up any sort of courage, and I put my phone in my chest to muffle my deep sigh before I put it back up to my ear. "Oh, yeah totally, But uhm... That's actually why I called you. I wanted to ask you something."

I felt myself physically sweating. Asking out any other guy probably would have been a breeze if I were to do it. But this was Alexander _fucking_ Hamilton. My anxiety levels were going through the high-ceiling roof.

_"What's up?"_

"Well, I was just wondering- Since we, y'know just went on a date... and kissed... do you want to, uhm, maybe..."  
I didn't know how else to put it, so as I blurted it out- I had no intention of doing it in that fashion or in any other.

"Go out with me? Like, boyfriends? Multiple dates?-" Alex cut me off with a sudden laugh before I could say anything else.

 _'Of course,'_ I thought. _'I blew it.'_

I apologized roughly around ten times before Alex spoke up again in his heaven-like voice, _"No, no, John. I'm laughing 'cause I'm happy! And I'm a condescending bitch. But, yes; I'd love that."_

"R-really? Oh, wow, Alex. That's... That's, uh, great! So... we're dating?" It had probably sounded impatient when I asked, but it was a legitimate question. Alex chuckled from behind the phone, and I felt my heart flutter out of my chest as he confirmed it.

_"Yeah, I guess we are."_

My mind was racing as I thought about it. Alexander and I were a couple. Pretty boy was _my_ pretty boy. The guy behind the Instagram page was now going to be featured on my Instagram page and have me bragging about him to others. Him and I were _dating._

 _Dating_.

Needless to say, I was beyond past not being able to stop smiling.

"So... Do you want to-"

 _"Sorry, I have to go- I'll talk to you later."_ Alex cut me off before hanging up.

I was a little startled at the sudden buzz in my ear from the line dropping dead, but didn't think of it as much as a big deal. I believed him when he said he would talk to me later, so why worry? But also, why _not_ worry?

Maybe Alex was about to get beat up himself by Lafayette? I quickly ruled that out of my head after I thought back to the picture of them on Alexander's Instagram page, and startled ruling out other possible scenarios Alex could have possibly been in to hang up in such a rush. Especially considering the fact that he just agreed to go out with me.

Relationship-style.

I tried not to think about it as hours passed, though I couldn't really get my mind completely off of Alex as I waited for his text or call back. It had been just an hour or two later, but it felt like years.

Until I got a text; A text from a groupchat.

Someone else must have made it, because I didn't recognize the three numbers that were logged into the groupchat besides Alexander's. He must had been the one who made it, as he was the first one to send a text to me and whoever.

_Alex: Guuuuyyyssss! I got a mans now and its pure bliss_

I smirked with a slight chuckle. He was so cute. The other three were probably his friends and they were 'spilling tea' or whatever the stupid saying was. I thought about if I should reply or let it be and not go on teasing him.

Then again, he was almost asking for it.

Alexander couldn't have put me in this groupchat on purpose, considering he was talking about _me._ I chuckled as I noticed he didn't type anything else after that, and read the texts that had already popped up that I had yet to notice until then.

_[Random Number 1]:_ _IWANTDETAILS_

_[Random Number 2]_ : _S p i l l_ 🍵

_[Random Number 3]:_ _Is he hot?_

_Me: Well, I'd like to say I am but its really up to preference_

I smirked wider as I typed it, and (quite literally) laughed out loud as my phone vibrated with message after message until I was down right getting spammed by these people. I scrolled through them, having to stroke my phone screen multiple times as a new message popped up every other second.

I spent the rest of my night talking to, who I soon learned to be; Peggy, Eliza, and Maria about random things, myself and who I was, and Alex. Especially Alex. I knew he'd wake up and read the texts eventually, but it didn't matter at this point.

As I mentioned before, Alexander brought out the best in people. And with me, the pretty boy brought out a confident, outgoing, eager, and emphatic side of myself. And with that side, I got Alex.

The boy didn't have a _single_ flaw.


	10. 10

**ALEX'S POV:**

"You call _that_ a death drop!?" Thomas Jefferson snarled at me as I groaned in pain after a failed attempt at a dead drop move.

He pushed me out of the way as I struggled to get up, and cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. Of course, he got it. The asshole did a spin before ending it with a (dare I say) flawless death drop with perfectly straight legs and perfect posture.

I rolled my eyes as James was the only one who clapped and walked over to Maria, who was sitting on the bleachers looking even more annoyed than I was at the moment.

Cheer had been fun before Thomas got elected captain. He didn't listen to any suggestions or concerns, he didn't take into account what people could do and couldn't do, and treated everyone on the team like slaves. The only one who got to avoid his bullshit was James Madison, the 'shy' boy, who waited on Thomas hand and foot like a loyal puppy and was probably fucking him after practice everyday.

And of course, with past differences between Thomas and I; _I_ got the worst of his crap.

_"You're doing it wrong!"_

_"Watch me, dumbass."_

_"Oh, Alexander- I'm afraid you'll need a bigger size than that if you don't want to look like a pig!"_

God, it got annoying.

"Hey, 'Ry," I huffed, snatchimg the water bottle next to her as she glared at her phone. "What's up?"

She pushed one of her loose curls out of her face and looked at me for a split second before going back to her phone, "Eliza's been ignoring my messages lately. She hasn't even said hi to me in the hall."

I furrow my brow. Eliza usually isn't the type of girl to ignore her friends. Or anyone in general. It was suprising to find that she was ignoring her best friend.

"I'm sorry 'bout that. Do you want me to talk to her?"

"Nah. If she's not meaning to, I don't want her to feel guilty."

I nodded. That was understandable. Maria sighed and stared at her feet for a good long minute before she instantly flinched as a booming voice screamed at her. She looked at me before rolling her eyes at Thomas and walked back to the group.

I sat out for a bit while I watched all the girls do stretches and leg lifts and spilts, while the guys did lunches and flips. We only had a few boys on the team beside Thomas, James, and I, but we were still relatively gender neutral.

Thomas, of course, was screaming at one of the girls as she accidentally tripped over her own foot, and didn't bother to help her up as he mocked her.

"Do you have a cleft leg or something!? Do it again or so help me, you're off the team!"

That was one of his many threats to us if we messed up, he never truly kicked anybody off the team. The only time that happened was when he kicked a freshman off after he found out a rumor went around that she slept with a teacher. Thomas said it brought a 'bad rep' to the team.

I took another sip of water as I watched the group get yelled at by Jefferson and felt anger bubble throughout my body.

The selfish bitch didn't deserve his spot on the team. Him and his fuck-buddy Madison should have been kneeling down before us and and kissing our feet, not vise versa.

Thomas Jefferson was no leader.

Not only was he a huge asshole, but there were even a few times when Madison had been gone and he'd get _real_ close.

I remember a time when we were practicing a pyramid and I was on top and Thomas grabbed my ass and I jumped so hard I made everybody fall.

I felt so bad that day, even though it was Thomas' fault. Due to the fall, Maria sprained her knee and had to sit out for one of our biggest dances at our school game, and Jefferson called her a slut for 'breaking it while sucking dick'.

That one made me want to push him off a cliff. He was the rudest guy in the school, and according to all high school movies- It instantly meant he was popular. And of course there were no exceptions for my high school.

Thomas continued to make everybody work until we got our newest dance as perfect as he wanted it to be, going to the point of making us late for the after- school bus, which we barely missed. Peggy quickly jumped over her assigned bus seat to sit next to me and gave me one of her airpods so we wouldn't have to listen completely to the dumbass IHeartRadio playlist the bus driver played all the time.

"So," Peggy gave me a cocky look as she spoke. "Is Mr. John Laurens doing you good?" I could literally see the blush shinning off of my cheeks as I pushed her slightly, shushing her. Peggy giggled childishly and paused the song we were listening to and turned back to me.

"Seriously, bro. How are you guys? You've been together for three days right?"

"Yes, but its not a big deal."

"Oh my God, yes it is! You two are adorable together!"

I rolled my eyes as Peggy pretended to cry and hugged me hard around my shoulders and mocked, "My little baby is growing up!" "You sound like my mom. Or worse, my brother."

I was still a bit upset about the fight we had, but didn't bring it up to Lafayette or anyone else. Except John- I pretty much had been texting him day and night about anything and everything ever since our relationship started. If you could even call it a relationship.

Of course, I would.

"John's fine." I said simply. Though, it was a complete understatement. John Laurens was one of the sweetest guys ever. I know everyone says it about any of their crushes or girlfriends or boyfriends, but I seriously- the guy was perfect.

Peggy raised an eyebrow as if she knew I was lying. Which is probably true considering she knew me better than I know myself. "Just fine, huh?" she said doubtfully.

"Yeah, we're fine. I'll tell you some stuff before we get off." I said, still trying to control myself from blurting out details left and right. She smiled and nodded her head.

As we neared my bus stop, Peggy turned to me like she was expecting something. Which she was. Nobody was really near us as both of us sat in the back and my bus stop was usually one of the lasts.

I waved her closer to me, "Okay, I hope you are prepared for rambling." "Always." She said.

As if it were on queue, my bus stopped directly in front of my street and waited for me to get off. Peggy smiled at me as if she were Jim from The Office, and laughed as I grabbed her hand and dragged her off with me with an annoyed huff.

Peggy was coming over to study at my house, but I had a feeling that we were just going to be talking and talking as we always did.

"Well, come on! I want to know all!" She demanded excitedly as her and I walked the few blocks to my apartment.

I blushed and it made her even more excited. So much so that she couldn't contain herself and grabbed my hand and ran as fast as she could to my complex while dragging me behind.

When we finally reached my apartment, Mom was there at the door, like always. She greeted us and chuckled as I gave her the look of 'Help Me Please' when Peggy began dragging me upstairs.

"Now spill!" She demanded once we were in my room.

I sighed, rolling my eyes at the girl and sat on the floor. "Fine, you persistent ass."

"John's fine. Well, more than fine. Like he's _fine_ but also he's way more. Like his eyes- they're so big in the moon light. It was like looking in the soul center of an emerald- Beautiful." I said, not even stopping to take a breath as I continued rambling.

Peggy smirked as I continued, "We've been texting a lot lately. More than we ever had. It's cute whenever he apologizes for 'texting me too much' or spamming me, 'cause I can tell that he's probably beating himself up over it as if I care. I don't, though. I love when he texts me. But I want to see him so bad."

I sighed, licking my dry lips from talking too much and too fast. Peggy seemed to get every sentence, though. Especially the last one.

"Then go see him."

I stared at her with a confused look and shook my head. "I can't, it's his baseball season." I sighed. "He's got so much practice. Y'know when I said we're texting a lot? It's hardly ever during the afternoon because of his practice."

Peggy puckered her lips in a joking manner and stroked her chin as to show she was thinking, "Then go see him at his practice. _Duh_."

"Already thought of that. I don't want his coach to get mad, and I don't want to distract him. His whole scholarship depends on his games." I told her. She stared off into space for a bit, and I realized she was actually thinking. She then turned to me, smiling.

"Just hear me out- We go cheer at his big game! Not only do we get a chance to show off our team to another school, but you can see your little boyfriend!" Peggy mocked the bit at the end.

I was already shaking my head as she tried to convince me. "Come on! What have we got to lose?" "Our spot on the team!" I said, almost laughing at how ridiculous the idea was.

"Thomas would kill us."

Peggy scoffed and rolled her eyes. She went on to argue that she didn't give a fuck about Thomas and that it would be a great opportunity for the cheer squad. I sighed and told her I'd think about it.

Later that day when I was doodling in on my sketchpad, I kept thinking about the thought of my team and I cheering on _my boyfriend's_ baseball team. But everytime I did think of it, I was hit with the fact that it wasn't _my_ team.

It was Thomas'. Whether I liked it or not.

But I just couldn't stand him. He was so... not right. He probably laughed at those sad dog shelter commercials and didn't so much as send a 'get well soon' card to his dying relative.

What Peggy said had leave an impression on me. Maybe it was our team's chance to go to a different school and show off our skills and possibly be able to compete against other teams? Or maybe her and I would be laughed off the team by Thomas when we brought up the idea.

Then again, I'd be able to see John play. And, God, I'd choose that over Thomas Jefferson's feelings any day.

I guess I was so distracted on that thought, I had drawn a baseball player swinging a home run and a cheerleader  girl waving her pompoms in the air from a distance. I smiled a bit and put down my sketch pad and grabbed my phone from the coffee table.

It buzzed as soon as it was in my hand, and I turned it on to see that John had sent me a text.

 

_John: Heyyy_

 

I bit my lip as the three Y's teased me. It was around the same time of night that John would have texted me every night, but it felt different this night.

It felt better. Way better.

I quickly sent back a reply.


	11. 11

**JOHN'S POV** **:**

"So, how's the relationship status?" Mom asked me unexpectedly, making my choke and cough out my drink of water.

My mother was the type of person that wanted to know everything about everyone, especially when it came to me for some reason. I tried not to look as if I wasn't lying, but my hands started to sweat as I picked up my fork, making it slip out of my hands and clatter on the table.

"I'm not dating anyone at the moment. Wish I was, uhh... 'probably going to be lonely forever." I laughed.

She quirked her thin, black brow in a suspicious manner and didn't say anything else as she placed more spaghetti on my plate. Anything besides; "What's his name, baby?"

I froze, giving off the obvious impression that I was hiding something. Mom smirked at me a bit, "Well, tell us."

"I, uh..."

__'Oh, wow. Great start idiot'_ _

"His name is Alexander." I mumbled in my napkin while I wiped my lips.

"Tell me about Alexander. He already sounds interesting if you can't even tell your own family about him." My eyes widened and I flashed my head up at her from where she sat, chuckling, across the kitchen table from me. I knew she was kidding, but damn. I never realized my mother's enjoyment of my awkwardness.

"Okay. He- He goes to a different school, first of all. And, uh, he likes Boba Tea. He's Puerto Rican like you, mom." "That's nice. Why don't you invite him over for dinner sometime?"

I coughed again and my face turned beet red an I smiled awkwardly, looking anywhere but her deep, brown, warm-yet-hard eyes. "Y'know, we've only been dating for a few days. I don't think I should just ask him-"

"Well, why not? I'd love to meet him. I'm sure we all would. I can make your favorite meal and then you two can hang out in your room for a bit." My mom said with a wink, making me laugh really loud and nervously- something I always did whenever I was in an awkward situation. "Mary! How was school today?" I changed the topic and turned to my little sister.

Mary shrugged and continued to play with one of her rag dolls on the table. "What'd you do? Anything fun?"

God, I sounded like a mom. Not my mother, of course. Normal mothers didn't want their sons growing up at all, ever. My mother wanted me to get laid already.

"I colored."

"Really!? That's _so_ cool!" I said over excitedly. She looked at me with a weird look as if she were concerned. "What else did you do?" "Uh... I can't remember."

My fake smile dropped into a genuine frown and I groaned, throwing my head back. "Damnit, Mary!"

"Mom! John said a bad word to me!" She whined, pointing at me.

I rolled my eyes as Mom got up and took my plate and her own into the kitchen sink and sat back down next to the other side of Mary, usually where my dad sat.

He was out on some business trip somewhere downtown and probably wouldn't be back until the morning to wake me up to mow the yard.

Mom took Mary's fork and stabbed a piece of broccoli and tried feeding her, though Mary moved her head away.

"All I'm saying is that maybe you should just ask him and see what he says."

I sighed, deciding to just give her the satisfaction and pretended to agree. "Okay, mom. Can I go to my room now?"

She shrugged and gave my sister an impatient look. I sighed, knowing I just _had_ to help.

"Hey, Mary. Did you know that if you don't eat all your vegetables- Dolly will come to life and eat you!?"

Her eyes widened and she looked down at her doll in fear before screaming loudly and throwing it away from her as she hopped down from her chair and ran away.

Mom glared at me as I laughed and went to go calm her down, while I ran up to my own room.

_Me: Heyyy_

I tried not to think about the whole dinner fiasco as I sent the message, but it kept lingering in my head. But so did the fact that Alexander and I had only been dating for a couple days, and I didn't just want to scare him off with my family.

Especially since my mother had brought the idea to the surface.

Maybe she was planning something? I mean, she already wanted me to get some action for some fucking reason. Maybe she would slip an aphrodisiac into our food.

God, that scarred me.

_Alex: Hi there_

_Me: Hru? How has your day been?_

_Alex: I'm good. I'm talking to you, aren't I? My day however has been actual shit_

My face was red as I read the first part of the message, and I felt my lips twist into a silly grin, before I read the rest of it.

I suddenly had the urge to send an overbearing message of comfort like I'd seen my straight guy friends do to there girlfriends. You know, the kind of text where you call the 'babygirl' and send a variety of stupid emojis? That's basically it.

But instead, I sent what I would call a 'safe text'. One that won't come back to haunt me later.

_Me: Oh no, what happened?_

_Alex: Oh nun. Just my cheer team's captain is a complete dick and he hates my guts but there's nothing really I can do about it_

Who the fuck was he talking about? Who the fuck is giving my boyfriend shit?

Who. the. fuck?

_Me: Oh I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do to help?_

_Alex: Well, I'd love to see your face_

_Me: Done_

I made my hair look somewhat decent before I hit Facetime and called Alexander, feeling like it had been years since I last saw his face.

The feeling quickly went away as Alex answered and showed off his angelic face.

It was silent for a few moments as I stared at him with adoration, concentrating on every detail until he broke the silence with a toothy grin, showing off his braces.

"Hello?" He giggled. It snapped me out of my trance and I blinked a few times before laughing as well. "Hey."

"Thank you for letting me see your face. It's very aesthetically pleasing to look at." Alex said, smile still on his face.

"My face? Aesthetically pleasing? You sure you aren't describing your own? Jesus Christ, man, you're..."

What word best described Alexander Hamilton? Desirable, sexy, gorgeous, beautiful, lovely, stunning, ect. There were too many to name yet all true. But which was the right one?

"Disgusting?" He laughed sarcastically. My expression immediately dropped. If any other person were to say that about him, I'd punch them square in the jaw and slam them into a wall. But when the words left Alexander's mouth, I just wanted to kiss him and silently tell him to stop lying and that he was enchanting.

Enchanting? That worked.

"No. You're an enchantment."

He looked a little surprised, like no one had ever told him that. My face stayed serious as his cheeks became flushed and his smile became small and sheepish.

"Thank you."

"No problem. Now, who the fuck is Thomas and what the hell is his deal?"

Alex seemed to perk up a bit and began rambling. I noticed that he talked a lot, but I didn't think it was a bad thing. I loved listening to him speak, ever word rolling of his tongue in a heavenly voice. He kept venting to me until he stopped and apologized out of the blue.

"Sorry, I'm talking too much-" "Yeah, I know. Keep doing it." I chuckled as he looked a little startled. "You want me to continue?" I looked at him like it was obvious, "I haven't stopped you, have I?"

Alex smiled brightly and he sighed, "God, where have you been?" "What?" "Where have you been all my life?"

Needless to say, my face turned blood red. He laughed a bit and brushed his hair to the other side of him.

I smirked, "Damn, Hamilton. Ain't you smooth?"

"Yep." He laughed.

Alexander and I stared at each other for a few moments in silence before he snickered and blushed profusely for some reason, confusing me greatly. "What?" "You're so awkward, its so cute!" He gushed, laughing even more.

I blushed once more as I embarrassingly looked off to the side. His laughter eventually faded out and he got back to talking about his situation with his cheer captain. I could already tell he was a dick.

But, boy, was I shocked when Alex told me about his 'touchy' side of him.

"He touched your ass!? When!?" I all but yelled in shock and anger. Alex's face showed shock at my reaction but I didn't care. Some motherfucker touched my boyfriend!

"I think it was, like, a few months ago?" He answered simply like it was no big deal. "Are you kidding me!?" I could feel my face turning red again, only this time, it was due to anger. "Yeah."

I took a deep breath and looked into his eyes as well as I could through the screen. "Why don't you just quit the team?"

His eyebrows furrowed and his face dropped, looking like I offended him.

Oh, shit, did I offend him?

"That's like asking me to ditch my friends. I can't just do that. They're my second family, almost. And Thomas is the drunk, verbally abusive, and perverted uncle."

I nodded understandably, though I laughed at his joke. He really was loyal. His whole view of relationships were that they were built on a team-like structure. Whether it was literally or not. And that was pretty fucking sweet if you ask me.

I laughed a bit at him, making him ask what about. "You're adorable." Alex glared at me as his face flushed again and he mumbled for me to shut up. I laughed even harder at that and gushed at him like he was a little kid.

"Stop!" He whined, frowning forcefully. I could see the corners of his lips twitch, indicating that he was trying not to smile. "Okay, okay."

Alexander sighed and placed his head on his hand, slightly squishing his cheek. "I wanna' see you."

"I'm right here, sugar." I teased. He mocked me back and smiled silly, "I mean in person, _sugar._ "

I hoped he meant that, because if so, the feeling was more the neutral. I thought about it for awhile until my mother's idea came back into my head. She said it didn't hurt to ask, but it would! Alex and I had only been together for a couple days and we had only been on one date! One! And now I was supposed to ask him to have dinner with my family?

Holy shit, my family. Holy shit, my mother!

I couldn't let Alex see that! She'd probably slip me a condom under the table for Christ's sake!

But where else could Alex and I go? I couldn't go anywhere on weekdays because of my baseball practice, and on weekends I had to work a few hours a day at the preschool down the street to earn money for a new car since mine was a complete piece of trash.

"Maybe we can..." I trailed off, groaning a bit. "God, you are going to think I'm weird." Alex shook his head and urged me to go on. I sighed, and slightly mumbled my mom's idea to him.

"Yes!"

I flashed my eyes up at him, looking at him like he was insane for agreeing. "What?" "Yes! I love that! Props to your mom."

"You actually want to meet my family and eat my mother's cooking?" He looked at me like it wasn't a serious question and nodded his head, "Yeah! When?"

Alright, maybe I had been a tiny bit wrong about Alex. Besides being absolutely perfect, he was complete insane. But no more insane that my family. Especially mom. And now my poor boyfriend was supposed to have dinner with them? Him and I now had to sit and eat with them while my father lectured me about college, my mother called me a virgin, and my little sister throwing food at me?

That was happening now?

I began to sweat again in my palms, struggling to keep the grip on my phone as Alex tried to get a date out of me.

"How about the eighteenth?" He suggested, his voice sounded so optimistic it made me even more worried about what it would sound like when he finally saw the catastrophe that was our family dinners.

In fact, I was so nervous that I didn't even realize that I approved the date until Alex spoke once more, "Great! It'll be fun!"

My eyes widened and I forced a fake, excited smile on my face. "Yep. So fun..."

More like so _fucked_.

"I can't wait to see you." He said after awhile of staring at me. His voice was quiet and sounded tired. I debated on whether or not to tell him I was going to be, or keep him awake.

Maybe I would keep him awake just a bit longer. I still needed to see his face, hear his voice. All the was left was to touch his beautiful skin.

But you can't really do that over Facetime, now can you?

All you can do is listen and speak.

"I can't wait to see _you._ "

Maybe a dinner wouldn't be so bad? Maybe it'd go smoothly? Maybe everything was going to be alright?

...

Or maybe it wouldn't?


	12. 12

**JOHN'S POV:**

My coach yelled at me from across the playing field as a ball had hit me square in the cheek and knocked me down,

"Get your head in the game, Laurens!"

Hercules came running over, and I could tell he was trying not to laugh as he held out a hand to help me up. "You okay, man?" he said, slightly snickering.

"No, I am _not_ okay." I snapped.

The entirety of practice had consisted of me completely losing my shit over the thought that Alexander Hamilton was going to be having a meal with me and my family.

I think I had a right to be distracted.

Hercules chuckled a bit, "Someone's on their period."

"Shut up!"

"Calm the fuck down and get your head outta' your ass, we got got balls to hit. And I'm sure you love that-"

I swung my bat in between his legs, making him go down to the ground while he held his groin in pain. Too bad he didn't wear a cup. "You're right, that is fun!"

He huffed out a shallow curse, "This isn't helping your case!"

I helped him up and got back into position with my bat while Herc limped back over to his base. I crouched down a bit, putting one foot in front of the other before I saw the ball coming, and swung it and hit the ball. It flew out of the small practice field we were forced to use, and landed yards away. It wasn't exactly a home run and something to be excited about, so everybody groaned and glared at me when I hit it.

I embarrassingly ran to get it, but stopped when a tall figure stepped in front of me, making me bump into them and stumble back.

"Hey, what the hell-" I stopped myself as I looked up to see a familiar lean and tall Lafayette staring down at me. His hair was pulled back in its usual bun, and his beard was already grown in and making my small amount of facial hair look like childish stubble.

He looked down at me before holding his hand out, "Does this belong to you?"

I flinched a bit before I saw he had the ball in his hands. I went to grab it before he snatched his hand away and grabbed my wrist with his free hand. Lafayette held the ball up as far into the air as he could and held my arm down so I couldn't reach for it as he taughted me a bit.

"Do you want it? You want it?" He mocked as if I were a dog. I glared at him a bit, "Come on, man, give it back. I got a game to practice for." And tried grabbing at it before he threw it over his shoulder.

"Go fetch!"

What, was he ten?

Lafayette let go of me, and I angrily ran after the ball to make sure he didn't go after it before I could.

I knew why he was doing this. He was still mad that I was dating his little brother. But Alex wasn't a baby, he could make his own decisions for himself and didn't need his big brother to hold his hand for the rest of his life.

In a way, that was sort of my job now.

Not to control him, but to hold his hand.

Man, that sounded _so_ cringy.

When I walked past him to go back to the field, Lafayette suddenly grabbed the back of my shirt and yanked me back and put me in a choke hold. I was shocked enough to throw a punch at him until he caught my fist.

This guy was terrifying.

"Listen to me, you pathetic dog. If you ever, and I mean ever-" I thrashed to get out of his hold until he tighted his grip on both my wrist and my neck, lifting my head a bit as it got harder to breath. "Even _look_ at Lexy the wrong way, I will personally make you pay. You have no clue what hell my baby brother has been put through by people like _you._ "

"He's not a baby." I grunted a bit, trying to get the grip of his arm off of my throat.

"Shut up, you know nothing. You fucking dog. He's not one of your chew toys, got it? Or must I remind you of that lovely girl Martha who you convinced you actually loved her only to move on to boys?"

My eyes widened a bit, and before I could even process what I was doing, my knuckles began to throb and bruise while he let go of me and held his left eye that already was beginning to swell, in pain.

His hands left his face and formed into fists but before he could swing at me, I ducked and tackled him to the ground.

I sat on top of him and threw a few more punches before his fist hit my lower cheek, _hard._

I groaned in pain and was surprised my jaw wasn't broken. I guess I got to distracted because by the time I went back to punch him, Lafayette grabbed me by my waist and switched our positions so that he was on top of me.

Lafayette punched me about three more times before the taste of iron entered my mouth and the feeling of blood began to run down my nose. I wrapped my hand in his hair and took another hit until my fist made contact with his nose.

He, quite literally, yelped in pain, and fell back and off of me. I could see blood begin to spill out of his hands and he held his nose.

"You son of a bitch." Lafayette cursed at me under his breath.

"What? Can't handle a broken nose?" I huffed snarky before he stood up again, fuming. My eyes widened a bit as he grabbed me by my shoulders and roughly brought him towards me, head-butting me.

Let's just say, I was on the ground by the time somebody came over to us.

**_(Timeskip)_ **

"Lafayette, you're suspended for the rest of the week. John, you're suspended off the baseball team until we can sort this whole thing out." The principal said, staring at us with great disappointment.

He didn't just say that though, did he?

He couldn't be serious.

"What!? He freaking gives me a concussion in a fight that he started and gets off with a four day suspension while my whole career is taken away from me!?"

"Mr. Laurens, sit down-"

"No! I will not sit down! Not until you say I'm free to play baseball! Suspend me for the rest of the month, I don't care! Just don't take baseball away from me!"

Mr. King's expression then turned from disappointed to annoyed as he sighed and shook his head, "We can't do that. You are the one who started the fight-"

I was about to scream about how it was self defense, but Mr. King put up his hand to stop me. "And it was on playing field. You're career is not being 'taken from you', just suspended until further notice."

Holy shit, he was serious.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't have tears in my eyes from anger when he let us go for the day. Lafayette kept giving me death looks, but I returned them right back. All of this was over him hating me because I had Alexander now.

I didn't regret it, though.

I'd do it again.

Lafayette didn't scare me. He wasn't going to tear me apart from Alex. Nobody could do that.

And then, suddenly, I couldn't wait for the dinner. At least, I couldn't until I saw my father's car.

My father was _livid._

I got a complete lecture on the way home along, along with getting grounded even though I was literally eighteen years old. My dad called me a dumbass for getting in a fight and told me to go in my room until dinner. I didn't bother arguing with him and just painfully walked up the stairs, trying not to show Mary my face and freak her out.

I was just grateful my phone didn't get taken away.

I knew Lafayette would tell Alexander what happened, if not, lie and say that I attacked him for no reason. I decided to send him a snapchat of my face, showing him how banged up I was to clear out the situation with a small text attached to it,

_'Call me'_

Before hitting send.

 

**ALEX'S POV:**

"Are you serious!? He already wants you to meet his family!?" Peggy asked me, shaking me a bit. I pulled away from her as she had her hands on my shoulders and went back to eating my cold cafeteria fries.

"I mean, it's not that huge of a deal-" "Yes it is! This ia the next step! You already went on a date, kissed, he asked you out, and now his parents want to meet you! Do you realize what the next step is?

I really didn't want to know. Peggy bounced her eyebrows in a teasing manner, making me turn to her and lightly slap her face. "No! Not in this wholesome household! Not 'til marriage, no ma'am!" I said with a jokingly serious tone. She scoffed and chuckled before her attention went somewhere else.

Before I knew it, she was waving over someone to our table and shouting at someone who was across the lunchroom before a teacher walked by and told her to sit down. Peggy scowled and secretly flipped them off as, who I know noticed was Maria, sat down at our circular table across from me.

"Hey, M. What's up? How the life? How's the wife?" Maria chuckled a bit as Peggy did a cockney accent and took a swig of her Arizona ice tea. "Good, I guess. But who's my wife?"

Peggy looked at her, then at me and saw we both were genuinely confused. She gave a look of 'isn't it obvious?', "Eliza."

I flashed my head over to Maria, remembering what she had said to me in cheer practice about Elizabeth. Her expression changed and she looked worried and nervous, but averted eye contact.

"I'm not sure, Peggy, how is _your sister_?"

"You think I talk to my family? That's adorable." Peggy sarcastically snorted, "Last time we had a family dinner where I actually made conversation was when I yelled at my dad to stop chewing so loudly."

I laughed a bit, but then turned back to Maria and asked her seriously. She sighed and showed me all of the messages she hadn't sent to Eliza with no responses and no read texts. I was confused, in all honesty. Usually, Eliza was one of those people who texted back almost immediately unless she was super busy. But she couldn't have been because it was way too early into the school year for us to be studying for tests or exams.

So, for lack of a better statement, what the hell was up?

"Anyways," Maria sighed, putting on a smile with her red lips, "How's John?"

I heard Peggy groan from behind me, "Here we go again.."

"He invited me to dinner with his family! I know it's early and not a huge thing but still! I get to see him in real life again! I still have the rose he gave me, its on my desk next to my laptop so I can look at it whenever I do homework. I think it kinda smells like him, since he smells like roses and I just can't wait to meet his mom! She's Puerto Rican like me and his little sister is so cute and maybe I could get a job babysitting for them? And I just, ooh, I can't wait!"

Maria blinked at me. She then smiled again, nodding a bit. Peggy wrapped her arms around me and jokingly shushed me like the way you would to a hyperactive toddler screaming in public. I laughed a bit, my cheeks flushing as I continued to think about John in my head.

He called me an enchantment, he called my pretty, he gave me a rose, he stood in line at a cafe for me, he kissed me, and now he was inviting me to meet his family.

How could such a guy exist? How?

I felt like a school girl daydreaming about him, but I couldn't help myself. The fact that it had been a week since he asked me out had gone over my head, and I felt like we had been a couple since we met over Instagram.

God, that felt like ages ago now.

Anyways, I was like this until I got home. Mom was, as usual, at the door, only this time she looked extremely pissed off. I gave her a confused look and asked what had happened. I hadn't done anything, so she couldn't have been mad at me.

And she wasn't, thank God. My mom was the sweetest mom alive besides my birth mom, but when she got angry. She got _horrifying_.

"Ask your brother." Mom said coldly, glaring inside the apartment.

I was confused a little but brushed it off as I set my bag down and was greeted by Bebe as she clawed at my legs. I winced a bit and picked her up before walking into the living room.

Before I even reached the couch, I was met with the bloody and bruised sight of Lafayette. I jumped a little at how badly he looked beaten up, but my face immediately contorted into anger.

"Oh, my God, you dumbass! You got into another stupid fight!?" I yelled, moving closer to him and grabbing his chin so he'd look at me.

Laf winced a bit, and turned to look off to the side. I huffed and rolled my eyes. Lafayette was always one to get into fights, as said before. No doubt somebody pissed him off. His nose looked bent and out of shape, his left eye was almost swollen shut, and he had a gash on the side of his forehead.

I noticed he wasn't making eye contact with me for whatever reason and snapped my fingers in his face to get his attention.

"Um, hello? Answer me please!-"

_Ding!_

My phone buzzed in my jeans' pocket, and when I saw it was a snapchat from John, my heart fluttered a bit. The whole day I had been thinking about him, so why wouldn't have been. I logged in, but before I opened it I saw Lafayette look at me out of the corner of my eye.

"Lexy, wait-"

"Holy shit!"

My screen now showed John's face covered in a few cuts and whole lot of bruises. His lip was busted a bit, and his forehead had a huge red and gnarly looking mark on it, almost similar to Lafayette's. On the photo read a caption,

_'Call me'_

I looked back at Lafayette, murder in my eyes as I set Bebe down. I pushed him back down onto the sofa, getting a painful groan out of him and screamed in anger. While I was at school, daydreaming of John, my brother was beating the shit out of him.

"After I told you not to!? Did that whole fight mean nothing to you! For Christ's sake, Laf, he looks horrible! _You_ look horrible! You got into a fucking fight!?

"No, I-"

"What the fuck is wrong with you!"

"Lexy, please-"

"Stop calling me that!"

Gil looked a bit shocked at my outburst, but didn't say anything after that. I turned my back to him and stomped up the stairs. He didn't deserve to explain, and neither did John. I didn't need to pick a side, I needed my brother and boyfriend to stop acting like douchebags and start acting like adults. For God's sake, sometimes Lafayette made me feel like the older brother, even if I was the one 'needing protection' or whatever.

I wasn't just some young, scrappy kid who had lost everything anymore! I didn't need someone to guide me to a life when I already had one. Why couldn't Lafayette see that?

I had John now. He should have just dealt with it. But no, he had to go and start a stupid fight.

Now I had John to deal with. I had been longing for him all day, but now, I was dreading calling him like he asked.

I guess he did have some flaws, on account of how messed up my brother's face was. But that wasn't why I was angry. I was angry because of his immaturity. Which I once thought was cute and harmless. Now it was an issue.


	13. 13

***JOHN'S POV:**

"Now, I know what you're going to say-"

_"Oh, I'm not going to say anything. Anything, besides that you're stupid."_

I winced a bit as he scolded me like a child, telling me I couldn't go getting into fights with Lafayette or anybody.

I tried cutting him off but everytime I went to speak, I couldn't find the words to exactly describe what had happened.

I could only ask what Lafayette had to him, which to he replied he hadn't been told anything. Alex had just come home when he saw Lafayette on the couch looking badly beaten and bloody with a gash on his head.

I scoffed, "Yeah, probably from when he headbutted me."

There was a moment of silence before Alexander spoke calmly once more, though it sounded way more anxious than before.

_"He headbutted you? A-are you okay?"_

 

A wave of vulnerability washed kver me as the words rolled of his tongue, genuine concern covered all over it. I hadn't ever really experienced that before. His voice sounded not only concerned, but sorry. Ashamed almost.

He couldn't have been blaming himself, could he?

Oh, God. He was.

 

"Yeah, I'm okay. You don't have to fret or nothing. Believe me, it was probably my fault anyway."

In all honesty, I had been the one who had thrown the first punch and busted his nose. Of course, Lafayette was the one who had set me off by grabbing me. I guess he deserved an apology just as much as me.

Also, I still wanted to have a _little_ chat with him concerning Alexander.

"Hey, speaking of which, could I talk to him? I want to apologize."

There was a bit of a shuffling noise after Alexander agreed, and soon a new, scowling voice picked up the phone.

I could practically hear the venom in his voice as he spoke but I quickly intervened, "Shut up and listen to me, dumbass. We're both adults technically so we should act like it. I'll go first- I'm sorry."

There was a bit of silence before a small voice urged Lafayette to say something. He did, though it was through obviously gritted teeth; _"I'm sorry, too."_

"Great! Now, Let's move on to a greater subject. Am I on speakerphone?"

Trust me when I say, I wouldn't want Alexander to ever hear what I was about to say to him. When he said I wasn't, I knew not to believe him and called out to Alex.

"Alex, am I on speaker-"

_"Dude, you're not so just say what you're going to say so I can hang up on your ass already!"_

 

I smirked and cleared my throat before throwing, what'd some could call, a threat at him and cursed him out mercilessly.

I called him a dog, reminding him of what he had referred to me and and handful of other insults as I explained that if he ever tried to threaten Alexander and I's relationship ever again, I wouldn't hesitate to give him a few points on how to swing a baseball bat, if he knew what I meant.

His voice said he wasn't intimidated, but his hesitation to respond after all I had said basically screamed that he was at least a little scared. And that was exactly my intention.

I put on another fake cheerful voice as I asked him to hand the phone back to Alexander, which he did as I soon heard his angelic voice.

\--

**ALEX'S POV:**

As Lafayette handed the phone back to me, I noticed the look his eye. _The_ look. The one that meant somebody had just started a war with him. And now, I suppose that someone was John. I smirked a bit as I took my phone and began walking to my room.

"So," I chuckled a bit. "Did you two make up?"

_"I guess you could say we have an agreement- Yes."_

 

I knew he was just joking around but   
I couldn't help but quietly snort at that. John laughed a bit from the phone and sighed. I heard the slightest groan of pain as he shuffled around. I cringed as I recalled what his forehead had looked like after Lafayette supposedly.

I tisked him, telling him it wouldn't have been hurting if he hadn't gotten into a fight. He laughed again before apologizing like a child in a mocking manner.

"Shut up," I giggled. "You're stupid."

 _"Don't remind me. Guess what I'll be doing this whole week?"_ I smirked again, wondering just what he was going to say before he answered for himself, _"Dying."_

"And just why exactly?"

_"Because the dumbass baseball coach and the dumbass principal think I'm worst than Ted Bundy now and kicked me off my baseball team."_

My eyes shot wide open, hoping I heard him incorrectly. Not so much as hoping as I was praying but you get the drift. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but hadn't Peggy made a whole thing about our cheer team going to John's game? Knowing Peggy, she wouldn't let that go until there was literally no way that could happen.

 

I guess this wasn't happening anymore, huh?

 

Or, maybe John was just messing with me? Maybe he just got benched and was being dramatic? Maybe his coach said that just to teach him a lesson? And just maybe, Peggy would forget about her idea?

Though, in the back of my mind, I knew she wouldn't.

I laughed nervously as I remembered how seriously she had been, and once again prayed to every God that she hadn't already brought it up to anybody else. "You're kidding, right? Please, tell my you are kidding." I said, sounding as desperate as I was for the right answer.

 _"I wish I was."_ John huffed and mumbled seriously.

I bit my lip, cursing silently under my breath. I had to call her. I had to call Peggy. I quickly and abruptly apologized to and said I had to go before hanging up before he could even finish what he was saying.

I knew he'd probably think I didn't care or that I was rude, but I would worry about that later.

For now, all my focus was set on my keyboard as I sent a frantic text to Peggy;

_Me: Dude respond its code red rn this is imPORTANT!!!_

_To: PETTY Schuyler_

_PETTY Schuyler: What???_

_Me: Forget the whole_ _John baseball thing, he's on probation from the team_

_PETTY_ _Schuyler: You're kidding right?_

I groaned, hitting the buttons on my keyboard to reassure her that I was not. What she sent back, however, had me hit with shock.

 

_PETTY Schuyler: Okay,,, ur gonna laugh but.._

_Me: but what???_

_PETTY Schuyler: I kinda already convinced the team... including Thomas_

You've got to be shitting me.

 

**(*A/N: I know it's a short chapter and I'm really sorry and disappointed in it but it was the best I could do under self pressure that I've been putting on) myself**


	14. 14

**ALEX'S POV:**

I had to get to practice.

I had to call the whole thing off before it was too late. Last night after Peggy had told me that she had already convinced Thomas to let the team go and cheer at John's high school _without telling me,_ I came up with a plan that sounded pretty solid when I first thought of it. But now that it was the day to set it into action, it seemed to be just too stupid to work.

But either way, it would have to do.

When I stepped into the gym, I was met with the familiar sound of Thomas' screaming voice. I rolled my eyes as I put my backpack and on the side of the big room and walked over to the mats that we were practicing on. As soon as I set my foot onto the blue, hard and firm surface, Thomas flashed his head around as if he were a predator ready to strike a small animal.

Apparently, _I_ was that small animal.

He took long strides over to me and stared down as he towered over me, "And just why the hell are you late!?"

I huffed quietly, knowing if I yelled back at him, it would spoil my whole plan. So, I did something I had never done before to Thomas.

I apologized to him.

He suddenly looked a little surprised, if not shocked. The only time I had ever apologized to him was when it was spiteful and sarcastic, so it was an understandable reaction. Even if it was fake, it didn't sound like it as I hung my head down in shame and made sure to averted eye contact.

Good thing I had taken a drama class in eighth grade.

Thomas rolled his eyes, "Whatever. Next time don't be late or you're sitting out."

"Understood."

I heard more gasps, and it made me almost break down into a fit of laughter. Thomas scowled at me but backed off and went back to criticizing the group.

"Okay, listen up! Looks like you losers are actually going to have to try this week, because as dear Margarita said-" "Peggy." "We are going to NPHS."

People made little to no cheer, which was kind of, if not very, ironic in a way. But it got me thinking that maybe my plan would actually have a chance of working? The only person that I would have difficulty with would be Jefferson.

Speaking of Satan's spawn, he began to go on and on about how much better their school was and how if even any of us so much missed a beat, that he would personally make our lives hell.

Oh, the irony of _that_.

"Got that, Hamilton?" He growled, sticking his witches nose into my personal bubble. I nodded, looking as convincing as I could.

Once again, the look on his face was hysterical. I was so closer to breaking until Thomas looked away and clapped his hands to command us to our positions as if we were circus animals.

I sighed my laughter out and slumped over to the gang, knowing this was going to be a particularly long day.

\--

During a break, Peggy pulled me off to the side for a minute and placed her hand on my forehead.

"What're you doing?" I asked, raising a brow. "Are you sick or something? You have been nice to Thomas fucking Jefferson all day! What's up with you?"

I debated on whether or not to tell her my plan. On one hand, she was literally my best friend and partner in crime. On the other hand, she would probably either get disappointed that I was against the original plan, or angry that I was against the original plan.

Maybe just once I could do it on my own?

I waved her off, deciding what I would do when the words rolled off my tongue. "I'm tired of fighting him. I'll just have to put up with him, I guess."

"Okay, who the fuck are you and what have you done to Alexander Hamilton?"

"I'm serious, Pegs," I laughed slightly. "I'm done fighting."

_Oh, trust me, when I say I definitely was not._

She shook her head in disapproval but gave up on me as she walked back over to the mats. I followed, until a familiar tall figure blocked me from the others.

"What's wrong with you? Why are you... not yelling at me?" Thomas glared suspiciously. Madison stood behind him and stared with the same amout of skepticism. I tried not to bark back at the two snakes, and just shrugged simply.

"I'm done."

"Done with what?" "With you. Specifically, fighting with you. You win." I wanted to ***** put a gun to my head after saying that. Thomas and James both looked at each other before turning their cold and soulless eyes back at me. "That's bullshit, Hamilton! You can't just say you're done like that! I have to make you say it!"

_'Would you rather lift me by my collar until I say 'uncle', jackass?'_

"Sorry, I'm done."

"You- You can't, can't just do that!"

"I think I just did."

Thomas looked dumbfounded as he tried to think of the words to say as I walked off. It was all part of the plan.

Finally, as he found the words to spit out at me, I turned back to him with a small but completely fake smile before he could speak; "I'm going to the vending machine. Do you want anything?" I held up a few dollars in my hand while mentally slapping myself for offering Jefferson anything that would cost me money.

Once again, he was left confused and with his big mouth slightly dropped open.

"Get me a Gatorade, and make it quick!" Thomas finally demanded, looking a bit flustered.

I smirked a bit as I turned around and walked out of the gymnasium doors and down the hall. The vending machines were by the water fountains and across the hall from the staircase that led up to the English and Spanish halls. I cringed as I placed my dollar fifty into it and pressed 'D7' for Thomas' damn drink that tasted like stomach acid. It dropped of the rack and came rolling towards me. I reached my hand into the small door and bent over to grab it before somebody's hand grabbed me.

Specifically, my ass.

I yelled, turning around to sock whoever it was before I saw Maria snickering behind her hand. I retreated my fist, but made sure to send her a glare. "If you wanted to say hello to me, you could have said it without groping me."

"I wanted to scare you." She chuckled softly. I rolled my eyes, "Well, congrats on a mission accomplished."

Maria noticed the Gatorade im my hand, looking understandably confused. On more than one occasion, I had given the drink mixed reviews. "Its for Thomas." I explained with a groan.

Maria seemed to be as confused as I expected her to be and before she could even ask me what was wrong with me, I stopped her by putting my finger up to her pouted and full lips. "No questions." She rolled her eyes and snorted a small laugh, moving my hand away.

Maria was always quiet, even when she laughed. I remembered a time where she wouldn't talk to anybody until finally when Eliza met her and got her to speak.

That got me thinking back to Elizabeth and Maria. I hadn't heard anything from Eliza after I had texted her a few nights ago, and apparently nobody else had any luck either. I was worried, but nobody was more worried than Maria.

They were just as close as Peggy and I. It didn't make any sense that Eliza refused to talk to her. Especially if she was going through a rough time, because she would have obviously gone to Maria first.

It just left my head spinning when I tried to think about it. It just made no sense.

I sent back a smile before my head flashed over to the sound of a booming voice coming from just outside the gym, "Break's over! Get your asses in here!"

Maria and I looked at each other, rolling our eyen in sync before heading back to where Thomas was standing impatiently.

He looked down at me before holding out his hand expectantly. I looked to my hand where the bottle of Gatorade was still being held and held it out for him with a silent and unnoticeable huff. He snatched it out of my hand before roughly placing something in my still open hand.

It felt soft like cotton, but thin and rough like paper. It was a crumpled up dollar bill.

I was taken aback, to say it simply. I looked up at him to see him chugging down the drink like it was life support. The dollar stayed in my hand before I put it in my pocket after Thomas yelled at me to get practicing the moves and acro-tricks.

It stayed in my pocket until I got home.  
Why had he paid me back? Was that his way of saying 'thanks'? You don't pay somebody back if they offer you something! It takes away the whole purpose of generosity!

And generosity was a huge part of my plan!

Thomas Jefferson would never in his life give a homeless man even a penny, so why did he give _me_ a dollar back? Then again, it was just a dollar. It didn't mean anything. But it did mean that Thomas was either thankful, or pittied me. My money was on the second option.

But besides that, my plan was going perfectly well.

Now, all that was left two do were just two small, little things. I just needed to talk to James Madison.

Only thing was, he didn't have social media, he didn't live anywhere near me, and I was pretty sure he didn't have a phone. I couldn't reach out to anyone else about this because they definitely wouldn't know how to contact him either, and was not about to text Thomas.

So how the hell was this supposed to work?

I sat at the dining table while drinking an iced coffee and tried to think off anybody else Thomas knew and actually trusted.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, I couldn't think of anyone.

I heard the fridge door open behind me, jolting me out of my train of thought. I turned my head slightly and saw a familiar bald head reflecting light from the kitchen light in the corner of my eye. I got out of my chair swiftly, abandoning my coffee and walked over to the tall figure. I put my face into his broad shoulder, whining in frustration.

Dad was used to this by now as I had done this everytime I was frustrated, and sighed deeply, "What's wrong now, Alexander."

There was a hint of exhaustion in his voice as it was almost midnight, but genuine emotion as well. I mumbled something into his shirt's sleeve, whining once more in a high pitched voice.

I looked up to see him blink in annoyance and stifled my chuckled as he exhaled deeply once again, "I can't understand you when you speak like that, Alexander."

"I said I have issues I have to deal with, _George._ "

"No Attitude."

This time, it was my turn to sigh as I apologized. I told him about how Peggy had told Thomas about her idea, and how I had to stop it from happening. I left out the part where John had gotten benched, but he apparently already seemed to know.

"Well, why don't you want them to cheer?" He asked, making me jump a bit at the sound of his calm yet ultimately accusing tone. "I do!" I defended, "It's just that-"

"Because John won't be there?"

I turned my head around in surprise to see Lafayette now standing in the kitchen. His left eye was still black and blue, but the rest of his injuries were recovering well. I looked at him with a pair of wide eyes, trying to deny what he had said.

He, nor dad, seemed to be convinced. And some how, neither did I.

Now I had no way to talk to James, a dollar from my sworn enemy, and a subconscious problem involving John.

 _Great_.  
  


**(*NOT INTENDED TO BE OFFENSIVE IN ANY WAY. NOT MEANT TO BE A MENTION OR JOKE TO THE SUBJECT OF SUICIDE)**


	15. 15

**JOHN'S POV:**

My head still was pounding after about a week, and it was barely getting by being infected as the gash was still raw and bloodied. It was sick. After the fight with Lafayette that ended with my baseball team kicking me to the curb, I had taken my time after school for the internet.

Specifically, social media.

Even more specifically, _Alexander's_ social media.

I was right back where I started; His Instagram. I scrolled through every post, memory, anything that passed my thumb. He hadn't really posted as often as he used to, but his few newest pictures were still glamorous.

Whether it was a picture of him and his cat or a post of him and his friends, I was looking at _him_. Those soul, deep, ocean eyes that reflected from the screen into my own eyes that were full of lust for him.

The mess of brown-almost-black urban hair that looked so perfectly soft no matter which way it was styled. The full set of plump lips that were always glossed naturally and shined along with his teeth that were corseted with blue colored braces. The adorable tiny beauty mark just next to the bridge of his nose on his left cheek. It was enough to make me go crazy.

Alexander was everything I could want, and I had him. I must've been the luckiest dude in the world. Our relationship had been going on for about two weeks or so at this point, and I already had guys fighting me for him. Well at least his brother, but whatever. Every time I thought of Alex, my mind went back to our date. How the moon lit up the night better than any star, though there were millions and millions of them, they way Alexander's rings shined off and brought out the soft texture or his hand.

I remembered when the same hand touched mine before our lips touched lovingly. God, that kiss was fucking me up. Everything else didn't seem to matter whenever I thought of that boy. Not my concussion, not the baseball team, not even college.

All that mattered to me right then and there was Alex.

I continued to scroll through his page, even clicking on the photos if I had seen them before. One of the photos being incredibly familiar; Alex in a questionable pose while in a hoodie and shorts that showed off the small tattoo on his thigh.

I looked closer and noticed it was a small sunflower. The boy loved them, so I wasn't at all surprised.

I remembered he told me about how he always wanted to grow them, but there was no place to do so in an apartment and he didn't trust city parks. He was so passionate about the things he loved and hated, I practically could make my own rant off of some of his own previous ones.

The entire night I just kept thinking about Alex. His face, his hair, his voice, his adorably short height. Everything about him made me feel so... what were the correct words?

Blissful?

Love struck?

High on cloud nine?

As I thought about it, or rather, let my mind wander and looked into Alexander's beautiful eyes- I felt myself jerk in surprise at a sudden feeling in between my legs. I looked down and my eyes became full and face bright red as I saw my hand under my boxer shorts.

I immediately pulled it away and threw my phone off to the side, abandoning the Instagram page. I sat up in and put my head in my hands before remembering where the left one had just been. I grimaced and fell back onto my bed.

What the hell was wrong with me? I almost jacked off to Alexander Hamilton, for Christ's sake.

I had barely gotten any sleep the following night, though I was exhausted and my eyes begged for me to shut them close. I just laid in my bed, looking up at my ceiling fan and followed each blade with my eyes until I made myself feel sick. As if I already wasn't sick of myself. All I was was a creep.

In all honesty, I was scared I would dream of Alexander. And, well that wouldn't go well with what had just occurred. Especially if it was _that_ kind of dream.

I think I may have been experiencing some type of symptom from the head injury, or maybe it was just a mixture of guilt and the feeling of clearing my head- But I felt the urge to go somewhere. I was internally screaming at me to go on a run, which I have never had the energy to do unless it was for physical education class.

I debated on whether or not to actually do it, but soon enough, despite my eyes begging for more sleep, I was tying my running shoes and putting in one of my airpods.

I scribbled down a note in case my mom woke up before I got home, but I incredibly doubted my mother, or anyone for that matter, would wake up before seven in the morning on a Saturday. Once it was finished, I put down the pen and headed out the door.

It had only been five or ten minutes at most, and I was dying. I convinced myself it was just the pain of my injuries making it more difficult, but in reality, I knew it was me.

Sure, I had a fit body- but damn I was emotionally unfit. And yes, I worked out. But not everyday.

Only when my sister had swimming class at the YMCA, and that schedule had changed since fall started.

Now I had no motivation to exercise at all. What was the point? I wasn't playing a sport or anything, right? Now I was just some built dude barely surviving a run after almost getting hard from his boyfriend of a few weeks.

Fabulous.

The sun was still rising a bit, though it was still a tad dark outside. The world was now a dusty grey-like navy blue color, with light only coming from the sun that was starting to form at the horizon. Even if the sun wasn't rising yet, it was still aesthetically pleasing.

 _'Didn't Alex call me that the other day?'_ I laughed in my head, my smile coming back to my face. I remembered the conversation we had, and how we had made dinner plans with my parents for the eighteenth. I thanked God that it wasn't until next week.

Alexander had planned it all out, him being a schedule-based and organized person. Everything he did was done with natural grace from him. Alex could make a burp attractive; that's just how charming he was.

As I continued my run, trying to focus on the Lizzo song that was playing in my ear, I couldn't help but see just how right Alex had been about the sunrise being as beautiful as he made it out to be. I was probably standing and watching the sun rise colorfully and bright until my phone buzzed, indicating I had ten minutes to finish my run and get home to watch Mary. Before I could turn around however, I found not just looking at the sun- but also staring at a building.

I was confused as to why, but it looked so familiar; Vividly familiar at that. I scanned the apartment complex up and down before seeing in the reflection of one of the windows was the street sign across the street.

My eyes went round as I recognized the street, and then the building in follow. It was Alexander's apartment complex. Last I had been there had been at the end of our date. The word 'date' made my stomach turn, in a good way- but still made me more sweat bullets than I already was.

I watched the building for a bit longer as if it would move if I looked away. But, after the sun started to light up the sky entirety, I began to walk away back in the direction of the bus stop I had passed. Walking home seemed like too much trouble.

As soon as I headed for the corner, I heard a light bang and clinging noise from in the distance behind me. I barely gave it an ear before I heard music start to play. Well, loud jazz music. I furrowed my brows at the apartment and turned back around to see what window the music was coming from, and instantly froze.

Alexander was hunched over the window with a goofy smile on his face. He had on a gray sweatshirt and glasses while no makeup was visible on his face, yet he looked just as stunning. He jokingly waved to me as I stood there like an idiot, not knowing what to say until I found myself saying the most awkward and soft 'hello' like I was the nervous new kid in school.

"What're you doing outside my window, stalker?" He laughed, making my heart melt but my mind swirl into a panic. "I was just going on a run. The usual."

"I've literally never seen you out here before in my life."

I deadpanned at that. I stammered to find the right words or some excuse before Alex stood up and motioned for me to come towards him. "You wanna come in? It's apartment 1991." He winked at me before shutting the window and blinds that went with it. I stood there for a minute before smiling like a kid in a candy store, and ran for the lobby.

The woman at the front all but glanced an eye at me and pointed to the staircase when I asked her what floor Alexander's apartment was on. I ended up walking up four whole flights of steps until I reached the hallway which his place was located.

I knocked once before the door swung open to reveal Alex standing there dressed in a yellow sweatshirt and shorts. He gave a sly smirk and talked quietly in a surprisingly low tone of voice, "It's a little too early to be selling bibles, huh?" Alex said sarcastically. I scoffed, rolling my eyes and went along with his joke, "Never too early to get to Heaven."

"I guess you're right..." Alexander whispered as he tugged my shirt to get my face closer to his own. Our lips touched suddenly and slightly harshly. I was a bit surprised, but eventually kissed back just as forcefully. I kept my knees together, praying that I didn't get another hard one as we pulled away.

I thanked God I had been running and the sweat on my face looked like it was from such- and not from the reality of anxiety and embarrassment. Just hours ago I was close to getting off on the pretty boy.

"Good morning, boyfriend." Alex yawned. I noticed how deep the bags were under his eyes, but they couldn't have been any deeper and sicker looking than mine. I snapped myself out of my head and smirked back at him, "Good morning, Sleeping beauty." He smiled playfully, turning around and walking towards what seemed to be the living room.

I followed behind and closed the door with my foot. I took time to look around at the place. There was a velvet couch which held throw pillows and a grey and white blanket against the fourth wall, and a leather brown armchair to the left of it. The walls show pictures of Alex and Lafayette, but not enough to fill an album.

Most of them looked to be recent, except for two larger frames that seemed to be taken years ago. One of which with a young couple and a boy, who was smiling wide and proudly holding a certificate. It was Lafayette, but younger.

I'd recognize that smile anywhere.

The one right beside it showed the same happy couple, only they looked older by a year or so. They were in a group hug that consisted of them, Lafayette, and a boy identical to Alexander. Both children were smiling, and it looked like Alex had a teardrop running down his cheek as Lafayette hugged him tightly.

I smiled partially, feeling happy for the young Hamilton.

My smile quickly dropped as I suddenly felt something swift and tingly crease my ankle, making me jump and curse in surprise. Alex came running over, trying to be as quiet as he could on his feet and hunched over. He giggled as he stood back up straight, this time with a white ball of fur. "That's just Bebe."

I let out a huff, rolling my eyes in annoyance. The flea bag turned its head towards me, flashing blue and golden eyes into my own. "Why are it's eyes like that?" I asked in a bit of a scowl at how weird and unfamiliar the feline looked.

Alex snorted, " _She's_ a Van cat. They're born like that." I nodded like I understood,but in my head all I could focus on was the cat's eyes. So mysterious, and deep. Like they looked directly into your soul.

I ignored the shiver that ran down my spine and continued to look around the room. The wooden floor clicked under my shoes with every step, A large flat sceen was set up on the wall and was paused on some cartoon I had never seen before.

I chuckled a bit and turned to Alex, "I didn't know you liked cartoons." He looked at me in confusion before glancing over at the TV. He snickered, shrugging like he had no shame. "Whatever. Cartoons rules." I laughed, shaking my head.

"You want some coffee? Or water? You look like you've sweated enough to water a community garden." I tried not to blush at that, suddenly feeling the moisture on my shirt that was a combined collection of sweat from exercise and nervousness. I smiled awkwardly but shook my head.

Alex shrugged and took the cup that was sitting of the coffee table into his hands before taking a gulp rather than a sip. I raised an eyebrow, "Are you supposed to have coffee with braces on?" Alexander looked at me before smiling and shook his head.

I scoffed and rolled my eyes, playing it off as though I hadn't just felt my heart physically pound out of my chest. Alex took another drink of it before setting it back down as he sat back on the couch before he patted the seat next to him for me to sit. I looked down into the hallway where a staircase was visible, but not to a distance as the hallway was darkened and suspiciously quiet.

"Aren't your parents getting up soon?" I asked hesitantly. "Only my mom, but she sleeps like a corpse so you're fine, you can sit down."

"Where's Lafayette? Or your dad?"

"Gym and work. 'Won't be back until, like, eight tonight. And Lafayette just works out a lot so he won't be back until at least an hour. I bet you get that." My eyes widened a bit and my palms started to sweat slightly as I looked to the side, nodding.

I sat down beside him and put my arm around him, "So, what has you up so early?"

"Watching the sun rise. Or, at least trying to." Alex replied with a bit of frustration in his voice, almost sounding distracted. I immediately sat up, realizing he probably didn't want me there and I was the cause of his dismay. I apologized and was about to get up before he grabbed my hand, making my quietly yelp as I felt blood rush to my face and my _area_. "No, it's not you. It's- It's dumb, nevermind. I don't want to sound all petty and shit."

I tisked him, pulling him body closer to mine to reassure him. I sure there was still some distance between us so I wouldn't over step my boundaries.

"What's up?" He took in a slightly long breath, indicating it was supposedly a long story. I prepared myself for him to say the worst of things before he explained one of the most _interestingly_ 'stressful' situations I had ever heard from someone. And that's saying a lot when you're in highschool.

"Peggy came up with this stupid idea to get our cheer team to preform at your school and before I could convince her otherwise, she got the whole team on board. Including Thomas. Now, I have to make sure we don't get to your school because I don't want Thomas to embarrass us and I don't want to betray you and-" I furrowed my brows together and cut him off by putting my hand in front of him, "Wait- hold up, hold up- Betray me?"

I put my face closer to his own once more, noting his blush. He stared at me awkwardly before turning his eyes back down to the floor, "Well, you got kicked off your team. I'd feel bad."

I wanted to correct him on how I wasn't necessarily kicked off my team, more like suspended, but all I could do was shake my head in disbelief. How could one be so sympathetic and thoughtful as to quit something they love?

For me.

"Oh, my God, you're a sweetheart." I teased. He looked at me in confusion, taking another sip of his coffee. I scoffed, laughing quietly. "I don't care about that. Go with whatever you want to do, or whatever you're team wants. Maybe you can get out of it yourself instead of your whole team? It seems like you're really not for it." Alex nodded to every sentence I said, sighing as I finished.

"I know; I'm selfish."

I couldn't believe this boy- how the hell could he believe that about himself? He wasn't selfish- he was thoughtless. At least in my eyes, or any eyes that could see. "You're not selfish," I put my hand on his knee. "You're just thinking of how to make yourself happy. And that's alright, Alex. You deserve to be happy, too."

He stared at me for what seemed like minutes before crashing his lips back into mine. I smiled like a fool, kissing back and moving my hand from his knee to his thigh. We finally pulled away after a minute and settled down on the couch. Alexander laid on my chest and fiddled with his black painted nails. I was too busy paying attention to Alexander that I hadn't even noticed I was messing around with with his hair and twisting it with my fingers until there was a small braid.

I decided not to tell him, smiling as I took my hand away. "Who are you trying to get ahold of again?" Alex glanced at me before turning back to his pet, brushing her fur like it was silk. I slightly huffed, but ignored the slight jealousy I felt for the cat.

He smiled gently, "James Madison. He's basically Thomas' prison bitch and-" I stopped him abruptly by sitting up in surprise. I recognized that name. I would anywhere. "James Madison? Really quiet short dude? He goes to your school?" "Yeah, you know him?" "Yeah, he's my friend Hercules' cousin!" Alex sat up similar to me, only with wide eyes full of disbelief.

I smiled, glad I was a source of help to him. "Really? That's great!" He cheered, throwing his hands up in the air. I laughed quietly and grabbed out my phone, already getting ready to text Hercules.

"What're you doing now?" Alex suddenly asked like a curious child with a wonderous set of eyes and a smile to go with it.

God, he was so beautiful.

His face looked so soft and smooth, and the little freckle on his cheek popped out like a gorgeous flower. I tried to keep myself from smashing my lips into his, and showed him my phone as to avert eye contact so he wouldn't see the hearts my pupils had formed for him. After a few seconds I fet my phone start to buzz in my hand and heard the sound of a monotoned ringer.

"You called him? It's seven o'clock in the morning-"

 _"What the fuck do you want, Laurens?"_ I jumped a bit at the low voice that came from the phone, but immediately rolled my eyes at the use of my lastname.

"Hey, Herc. Sorry for calling so early..." I sent a glare over to Alexander, trying to hide my smile as he snickered and shrugged. "I just needed your cousin's number." There was a shuffling noise from the phone, as well as a groan from him. _"Which one? I got, like, twelve."_ "James Madison!" Alexander suddenly chided in. I chuckled and covered his mouth with my hand.

There was a bit of silence from that moment on until Hercules digitalized voice rang out again, _"Who's that, John?"_ I felt my hands start to sweat at the sense of mimicry in his voice.

"Just give me the fucking number, Mulligan." I suddenly snapped, taking him off speakerphone and putting the cellphone up to my ear. He scoffed on the other line, _"He doesn't have one. Not even a house phone."_

"He doesn't have one!?" I raised my voice, slapping my hand to my face when Hercules confirmed it.

 _"Nope. My aunt is against technology. They don't even have a TV. It's so fuckin' boring at there house."_ Alexander scrunched up his face in dismay before just shrugging his shoulders at me once more as to silently say 'Oh, well'. I wasn't about to give up however. I was so determined on helping Alexander that it didn't even occur to me what I had said until Hercules said it back to me in a hesitant tone.

_"I'm not sure about meeting up with James. He's kind of a dead faced dude. Besides, doesn't your little lover boy go to school with 'em?"_

"Yeah, John, I can always just talk to him myself. I have cheer on Tuesday and class with him Monday. It's fine." Alexander said as if on queue.

I sighed, but didn't argue with him. I hung up the phone after apologizing to Hercules before promptly apologizing to Alexander. He waved me off and scooted closer to me until he was almost in my lap. So much for his boundaries. "We'll think of something later. We got bigger things to worry about." He chuckled and began messing around with his cat again. Worry about what? "Dinner with your parents?"

Oh, right; That.

Before we could even begin discussing anything, a creak followed by soft footsteps echoed from the hallway. I yelped as Alexander sat up and yanked me off the couch by my sweat soaked shirt.

I felt my face get hot and he wiped his hands dry off on his pants before frantically trying to get me towards the stairs. "What're you doing?" I stressed quietly as he pushed me up the steps. "My mom's up! Shut up for a minute!" Alex yelled softly back to me.

Once we were up on the second floor of the place, he pushed my towards a door with a license plate that read 'Alex', along with a bunch of stickers that were so weird and creative he couldn't possibly had gotten them from the craft store. I was about to see Alexander's bedroom.

As soon as the door shut behind Alex, he locked it and rushed over to his window. I took my time to look around.

Next to his bed, there was a nightstand that was there solely to charge his phone and plug in his decor lights. On the walls, there were flags of Puerto Rico and a flag I had never even seen before. It was green and red and spit in between them was a black stripe with two white stars in it. I stared at for a long time before seeing another picture stapled to the wall.

It was of a woman.

Her hair was brown, wavy, and cut short to her shoulders. Her skin was pale, however, besides for the thousands upon thousands of small brown specks that covered her face that showed a small but motherly smile towards whoever was taking the photo.

I stared at the woman for what felt like hours until Alexander's voice came from behind me, and startled me. "That's my mother. Now, can we please focus on _your_ parents?" His voice sounded cold and mumbled, like he was telepathically and verbally ignoring and averting all the questions I wanted to ask.

I nodded awkwardly and walked away from the photo and flag and headed towards the window that held two mounds of pillows and cushions stacked up to form two seats. I hesitantly sit down beside Alexander and let my gaze fall into his eyes.

"So, what are your folks like?"

I bit my lip, debating on whether or not to tell him how embarrassing my family is. I take in a deep breath after a quick decision and finally give out an answer.

**(*The longest chapter in the entire book. So, sit back. Get comfy and snuggle up with your pet cactus. Get ready to read 4231 words :'D)**


	16. 16

**ALEX'S POV:**

"First off, my mom is a nurse," John said, answering my question while already intriguing me into his mother's life. "She works at the mental hospital as a medical assistant for when the patients get themselves into trouble. And my father is a businessman. He works for, like, this government campaign business or something? I don't know." He trailed off as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"No, go on! I'm already loving them!" I encouraged with a smile. He grinned back at me and rolled his eyes before he continued.

He talked about his mom was from Puerto Rico and his father was raised in South Carolina and they ended up having a shotgun wedding due to his mom being pregnant with him when she was just twenty years old and his father was twenty five. "Yeah, they were at a party and things got to frisky, I guess. I don't know- it's weird to talk about my mom getting knocked up with me!" John stressed in a flustered tone.

I laughed quietly as he blushed a bit and averted eye contact. "I've never really been asked about my parents' life story before, y'know?" My smile fell a bit as my eyes immediately flashed over to my mother.

My biological mother's photo, I should say.

I could still hear her laughter from the picture as I sighed calmly, trying and, thankfully, succeeding keeping myself relaxed.

"Alex, are you okay? Why do you want to talk about my folks?" John's voice suddenly lingered from behind me. I turned my head back to him with a smile as I shrugged my shoulders, "I'm just a curious guy." I said as platonically as I could before quickly changing the subject, "You grew up in North Carolina, right? What was it like there? What's your little sister like?"

"South Carolina, actually. But great effort," he chuckled, making me blush. "And Mary likes pink. That's all there is to know about her. But, we moved here when I was in freshman year of highschool, so yeah, I guess I grew up there. South Carolina is great. I know everybody says that about where they come from- but it's true!" John exclaimed as he grinned ear to ear. It was cute, I thought.

I listened in until I felt something vibrate under my thigh and realized my phone's notification pattern. I tried to ignore it before it went off again as I reminder that I didn't acknowledge it the first time, and in doing so made my thigh vibrate yet again which made me shiver slightly.

John obviously noticed as he stopped talking and stared at me with eyes that could only say 'just answer it' to anybody that could stare back into them. I apologized before clicking the message, which was from Maria;

_Mari-ahhh: Hey_ _bro_ _, can you text Liz for me?? She hasn't texted me since, like, two years ago lol_

I cringed at the text. Sure, it seemed lighthearted and written as if she really wasn't all that concerned, but I knew my friend better than that. Every space contained concern and the 'lol' comment was just an obvious cry for help.

I raised my head up to smile and nod at John to let him know he could continue, which he then took it upon him self to do so and began rambling about just how great South Carolina was, smiling brightly all the while.

I continued to watch his mouth move in acknowledgement that I was listening and paying attention to everything he was saying as I tried desperately to get Eliza's contact up on my screen without looking. I quickly sent a small glance down- playing it off as if I was just checking the time or something that probably looked totally obvious to what I was actually doing- and saw I made the reasonable mistake of choosing Jefferson's number to send the surprisingly spelling mistake-free greeting.

I rolled my eyes at myself, cursing under my breath. John suddenly stopped himself from talking, making me look up to find the reason why. He was blushing a bit and staring at my bedside table, which was the home of the now slowly dying rose from our date at the park.

I bit my lip as he turned back to me with a small smirk on his face, "You still have it? It's dead, though." I turned red a bit and returned an embarrassed smile back with a nod to go with it. "I treasure it."

"Well, ain't you sweet?" He teased me, suddenly having an accent lingering in his voice. A southern accent, mind you. I snickered and mocked it with a more exaggerated tone to it.

John rolled his eyes with a scoff, "Yeah, whatever. So, what's up with your phone? Was it Lafayette? Is he coming home?" He said with a nervous tone. I snickered at his worry, making him defend himself by making up an excuse as to why he cared. I laughed, "Nope, 'just my friend Maria. She just wanted me to text my other friend, Eliza, 'cause she won't text her back. You know how girls are with drama and shit."

He hummed in agreement as a large smile formed in his face that was nothing but suspicious.

"I have one thing to say to that."

"And what's that?"

There was a moment of pause before John let out a small snicker and tried to hold in a bubble of laughter, "Hoes mad."

"Get the fuck out of my room, right now, or I'm calling the cops." I scoffed, punching him in the bicep. We both broke out into laughter. I was surprised my mom didn't hear us from downstairs at how loud we were being.

After some time, the giggle fest quieted down and we were both just sitting there. Neither of us were saying a word or making an suddenly movements, it was just a still and silent atmosphere. It wasn't until John looked to his phone that we both discovered a large portion of time had been taken up by his visit. He'd been out for an hour and a half, almost.

We both knew he should have left then and there to spare himself some trouble with being grounded still from the childish fight between him and Lafayette, but John didn't make an attempts to leave.

"Hey, this is going to sound weird, but..." John suddenly broken the silence. "Can- Can I see your face real quick? If that makes sense."

I furrowed my brows in confusion but complied, scooting closer towards him before leaning my head forward. He cupped my cheek with his hand and took his other hand's thumb to the mark on my left cheek. I never liked it, I always though it looked more like a blemish instead of a birthmark.

John seemed to be fascinated by it, though.

He stared at it with wide eyes before bringing his face closer to mine. "I think it's one of my favorite things about you." I laughed as a familiar blush crawled up my neck.

We both kept our smiles on our faces to show each other as our faces were as close as they could be without touching. The feeling between us made human contact seem like a mere touch of list as we just stared at each other like blinking would cause one or the other to disappear. I soon had to break eye contact however as my eyes forced me to blink, and when I reopened them to look outside to the street, they immediately became large with surprise. Lafayette parked his car out beside the sidewalk always whenever he came back from the gym. It was probably past seven or eight at this point, so it was no different and I shouldn't have expected it to be.

I looked back to John, the red mark on his head for Lafayette's fisr that was fading and healing now suddenly looked all to new and fresh as if it were glowing upon Lafayette's presence.

"Hey, John?" I lisped as my lips were puckered a bit from his hands squishing my cheeks.

"Yeah?"

"White Mercedes, white Mercedes!" I said urgently as Lafayette's head popped out of the car door.

John looked to where my eyes were following Laf, and let go of my head as he stood and slid the curtains closed.

"Shit! Okay, uhm..." He panted. "I'll just go down the fire escape; simple!" John gave a much to cheerful and hopefull smile, faking it as much as his voice gave it away. "The fire escape is on the other side of the apartment, though. My mom will see you."

His face contorted back into a panic before he gave a look of ideation. He took his hand to his hair and pulled the hair tie out like it was nothing.

His brown curls bounced in every direction and showed just how long it was as he flashed his head to a corner of the room, which was full of stacks of books, and grabbed the only one that was genetic enough and without a label.

It was a book on Shakespeare from the year before and the cover had gotten destroyed after I spilled coffee all over it one stressful night. I scrunched my face in confusion as John shrugged, "Like I said, It's never too early to be selling Bibles. Or something like that, anyway." I blinked before bursting out in a wide grin.

This boy was amazing.

Sure, he was stealing my book- but he was also stealing my heart. As cheesy as that sounds, it was true.

"Well, I guess I'd better leave now." He sighed softly, making my smile drop into a slight frown.

"Okay then. I guess, uhm, I'll text you later?"

"Bet."

I snickered and rolled my eyes to him. I looked him up and down at his simple and yet sort of convincing outfit before I found myself finding one of my dress ties for him. I gave it to him and suddenly a look of distress became apparent on his face. I raised an eyebrow, "You're eighteen years old and you can't tie a tie?" He shook his head and gave off an awkward laugh, "My mom always did it whenever we went to church."

"Mama's boy." I teased him. I failed to mention that I was probably the worst mama's boy in all of American.

I wrapped the tie around his neck and managed to tie it perfectly. I pulled and straightened it to his collar bone, managing to surpass his long curls, and smiled proudly at my work. "Never once went to church but there's always funerals." His eyes went round a bit before I snorted and reassured him I was joking.

I snuck away down stairs with John following close behind so that our footsteps were in unison and similar sounding so that my mom wouldn't find us.

I trailed off into the kitchen where my mom was making herself a cup of black coffee and distracted her whilst John quickly ran out the door before running down the hall with loud and apparent footsteps. I cringed as my mom turned her nose to the direction of the door, sneering.

"Those darn Stanley kids. How many of them are there now? Three? Four? I swear that Ms. Stanley never stops with that boyfriend of hers." I let out a huff of relief and nodded in agreement to her.

As I went to sit down at the counter, I heard the door close and footsteps walk towards the other side of the kitchen. "There was some mormon dude running down the hall like a maniac." I heard Lafayette speak from behind me.

I stifled a laugh as mom just shook her head, "Huh. Weird."


	17. **17

**(*WARNING: slightly NSFW. You have been warned, my guys)**

**JOHN'S POV:**

I suppose it wasn't really a lie anymore that I had gone running. I could also see how my disguise to Lafayette was a bit unusual as most ministers usually don't go selling Bibles door-to-door and gym shorts and a college sweatshirt.

I'm not exactly proud to say I ran all the way home, barging into the door right as my mother was heading for work she gave me an obvious word look up and down. "Well, isn't that quite the attire. Where'd you get the book? Don't tell me you just now decided to pick up on reading."

I opened my mouth to speak, but like always, my mother cut me off with a smile, "How's that date of yours, Jacky? Does he enjoy reading?" A groan plunched itself out of my throat and I couldn't help but scoff at her. I always hated that nickname with a great passion. But, of course, my mother loved it for me.

"I don't know? Don't all guys hate reading?"

"Not all," she laughed. "You should get into the author's and reader's program down at the Yorkville High. I'm sure your stories would be great, and you used to love writing your little books so maybe it would be fun?" I felt my face get hot and smiled awkwardly at the embarrassing memories of me spending hours on end in my room just writing idiotic and childish stories that would most likely be laughed at be kids Mary's age.

Speaking of the little twerp, she came walking out with her Baby Alive doll and run up to my mom and hugged her legs from behind. Mom didn't seem the least bit fazed as she clicked her tongue and smiled, "I think you'd be a great author. It'd give you something to do when you aren't... running around in sweats and a dress tie? What's up with that?"

"Do you really want me to explain?'

"Unfortunately, I have to go save lives. But maybe next time?" She winked at me and bent down to lift Mary up before practically shoving her into my arms, making me drop the book on the front yard's dying October grass. Mary waved goodbye sadly to her as she got in the car and drove away.

She never really liked being in my care, I realized. It had been like that ever since she was a baby, but I couldn't figure why. She liked _me_ , but not my babysitting skills. I always found it odd. Maybe she didn't trust me, or even like me like I always thought? But then again, she was a preschool. Who's to say I needed the approval of somebody who eats Playdoh like it's a four course meal? I loved my sister, but that always left me stuck thinking if she loved me. She better had, or else I wasn't getting paid for nothing. Key word, _wasn't_.

I took Mary back inside I set in front of an already poured bowl cereal and tried to look interested as she told me about her preschool group, "And then Michaela pulled Maya's hair and got in trouble. And then, Ms. Abbey told us about manners and we drew pictures of us doin' manners." Mary finally finished, spitting a few pieces of chewed up cereal marshmallows out.

I scowled in slight disgust and took her half empty bowl away, "What was your picture of?"

"I forgot. But- and then, we did sharing circle and I showed Cinderella!" Mary finished as she lifted up her doll proudly, which I suppose was called 'Cinderella'. I made an exaggerated gasp for her amusement and poured the remaining cereal into a bowl just for me and motioned for her to leave the table, "That's awesome, Mary. Did your friends like her?"

She hummed in response and jumped up on the couch and sat down on his knees, snatching the TV guide remote before I could even attempt to. I huffed, knowing very well she would most definitely put on some puppet show that would most succeed in freaking me out to my core. Just the thought of marionette puppets made my spine shiver a bit. The lifelessness creeped me out beyond myself.

I was wrong, actually; Mary had decided she wanted to watch a religious cartoon for reasons I can't say. However, half way through the episode, she turned to me while I was on my last bite of cereal and asked in a small voice, "Why do you like boys?"

I choked on my Lucky Charms. Not from surprise or shock, but from laughter. To have my five year old sister basically ask me why I was gay was hilarious to me for some odd reason. Mary didn't laugh along with me, just raised her eyebrow in confusion until I finally was able to answer without giggling.

"The same way mom and dad love each other. It's just how I experience love. To guys, not to girls."

"But why? Why don't you like girls like Daddy? Mommy's a girl, and I'm a girl. Do you not love us?" Mary was what some could call persistent, but I called it curious. She was only a kid, and kids ask a lot of questions. _Especially_ Mary.

I smiled and shook my head at her question, "Yes, but as family. Not as crushes. Y'know how you have crushes on boys? So do I. And so do some other boys in the world- They like other boys the same way girls like guys. But sometimes, girls can also like girls like boys do. Nothin' new..." I mumbled the last part of the sentence to satisfy myself as Mary offered a dragged out _"Oh"_.

I laughed again at that before I turned back to my phone, noticing a text from Hercules. It was a bit later than when I had last called him at Alex's house, and suspected it was probably a joke of a  threat for waking him up. I was surprised to see it wasn't, but rather an invitation to meet with me at the park where, coincidentally, Alexander and I held our date. Except him and I were in the local area, not the homeless people attraction area, not far from the woods.

I looked over back to Mary, who didn't bother covering up her cough that never seemed to go away even after she had gotten over her small cold last month, and hesitantly declined to do whatever Hercules' had an idea of doing that would be considered fun if we were in middle school.

Such as climbing the roof of an abandoned RV. Or breaking into an old and 'haunted' garden shed, even though it only turned out to be infested with racoons.

"John, what's that?" Mary's voice suddenly spoke out of the blue. I looked up to the TV and followed the episode and saw a parade scene full of animated characters. She had never seen a parade before, so it didn't seem strange for her to ask. After all, kids ask _so_ many questions.

"It's a parade. Like with floats, dancers, and stuff. It's a celebration, sort of." "Of what?" "Of anything. Like, there are Christmas parades and Easter parades. Or other small holidays."

"Why do people like them?" There was a moment of absolute silence as more memories of the park came flooding back. I didn't specifically understand why the date was all of a sudden relevant then and there when it was in the past and had nothing to do with the people around me besides Alex, but I suppose it was a pleasant sense of coincidence.

I opened my mouth to speak and was once again hit with a hint of Deja Vu as the words that escaped my mouth didn't quite sound original; "They have the power to make people happy. The performers, the crowds watching live, and the people watching on TV. Like you and me."

Mary, thankfully, didn't seem to notice how I acted as if parades were the answer to all happiness in the world and just nodded and went back to her doll, whilst I went back to my phone.

I was back on Instagram, stalking my boyfriend and his friends like any sane individual- when I actually found myself in his following page. It was mostly artists and musicians, but also some non-famous folk; like his friends. I guessed he were popular or something by the looks of some of these people. As I was leaving the app to get onto YouTube to watch whatever new, strange videos were in my recommendations, another text message from Hercules came up on the top of my screen.

_Herc: Come onnnnnn, we can break into the abandoned mental hospital behind the_ _woods._

_Me: Nah fuck that. We did that last summer and all that was there were was rats and other dead rats. Fuck rats. Plus, I got my sister._

_Herc: And your_ _boyfrienddd_

_Herc: Haha you're gay_

_Me: Omg are you serious? Like, fr I had no idea. That's crazy!_

I rolled my eyes and shut my phone off finally as I noticed Mary run off to her room, and quickly flipped on a show of my taste and standards. I was watching until I saw my phone's screen light up and groaned loudly.

I flipped it over, ignoring it entirely. As I slumped back on the couch, I was brought back to the attention of the television as the scene changed to that of a sexual scene, startling me a bit.

It wasn't subtle, mind you. Just full on hot steamy, meaningless sex.

I couldn't tear my eyes away, not even making any attempts to turn it off. For whatever reason, I found myself watching it intensely. I suddenly found my mind being sworn with pictures and memories. Memories the conversation over dinner about my nonexistent sex life with my mother that led up to the dinner invitation, the Instagram page that led up to the relationship between him and I, and the field after the park that was being brought up again by Hercules- and, as the scene turned even more pornografic, all I could picture was Alexander.

It was the morning all over again.

I blinked down at my pants, praying to God that my hand wasn't already down there. It thankfully was not, making me sigh in relief. After a minute of my head swirling like a spiral with image after image of Alex while the moaning and kissing played softly in the background but echoed loudly in my head, I had finally found the remote in my hand and my thumb over the red 'off' button.

Although it was a straight couple, I could still feel a flow of blood rush to my pants. This entire morning had been hard.

Literally.

I couldn't handle it anymore. What with the sweat and the blood rush to _both_ of my heads, I figured without much thought that a shower was the best option for me.

Between that and leaving _it_ hard for God and everybody to see, and a nice cold shower to get my head out of my ass. I hopped in, not bothering to comb out my mangled hair before I squirted an amout of conditioner big enough to fit two handfuls. The scent smell like something straight out of the men's cosmetics at Target, making me roll my eyes at my father's obsession with keeping his hair perfectly fluffy. Though, he hardly had any hair. Unlike Alex.

Alexander's hair was so beautiful. The way it fluffed out when he put it up so it was just an angelic brown highlighted ball of heaven. The way it brushed against your face slightly from the fast movement of him flashing his head toward you so he could face you. God in heaven he was everything I wanted and more, and he was actually mine! The very same hair, the same beauteous face- the whole package.

Including _the_ package.

Speaking of such, the thought of that specific area made my palm clamp against my "better" half as the cold water suddenly turned luke warm. I looked down and shrieked, taking my hand away and holding it to my chest.

My shallow breathing suddenly spiked again as my phone rang from the windowsill, making me almost slip as I reached for it. Hercules' familiar contact number showed as I accepted the call, "H-hello? What's up, man?" I coughed, panting a bit.

Hercules chuckled from the other line, " _Let's meet up, the park is practically empty. We can play baseball bottle toss! We won't get in trouble because, like, nobody's here..._ "

I scoffed at him, "That sounds oddly ominous. And I'm not worried about getting into trouble, I-"

 _"Then what the hell are you still at your house for? Get your ass over here."_ His voice groggily said in a hearty chuckle before he hung up the phone abruptly. I glared at my phone, setting it back down the windowsill before shutting of the water, mumbling in anger to myself as I stepped out and wrapped a towel around my waist.

I huffed in frustration as I walked out and upstairs, knocking on Mary's door before going across the hall to my own room where I roughly put on a pair of loose jeans and a sweatshirt that was coincidentally the same one I had worn to the park previously when I was meeting up with Alex. Only this time, I didn't need to buy a stupid seven dollar rose and stand in line for coffee with brown snot balls in it. I couldn't understand why Alexander liked it so much.

By the looks of it, it looked like a texture type of disgusting. But, who the hell was I to call something disgusting? Approximately ten minutes before I had been fantasizing about my boyfriend and I fucking.

My boyfriend of a few weeks, might I add.

I was such a perv. Maybe that's why my mom wanted me to get laid, it would hopefully stop my creepy morning erections and very erotic dreams that I'm not even sure I should have told my dad about. He never looked at me the same afterwards.

And now, what if I had told Alex about this? He'd dump me, and I would resort stalking his Instagram page while playing with myself like a sicko. I tried to disregard these scenarios in my head as I walked out of my room, ultimately forgetting to put on any deodorant as I basically slid down the stairs trying to get my shoes on.

"First, I gotta' be a Mormon, Now I gotta' go to the fucking park?" I mumbled to myself under my breath, not knowing if my sister was around anywhere.

"Mary! Come downstairs!"

Pounding small footsteps came tumbling down the stairs and she looked guilty like I was about to scold her for some misbehavior of hers.

I tossed her jacket to her and a pair of rain boots, getting an expected change of face as she furrowed her brows in confusion before contorting into an excited smile when I asked, "Wanna go to the park?"

She happily slipped her boots and coat on before running up to grab my hand. I smiled down at her and grabbed my keys and phone, sending a quick text to Ma before walking out to my car and driving off and away to the local park.

**(*A/N: I am so sorry it is so late and so messy. It's 1 am and I'm tired but that's still no excuse. Sorry if I'm letting any of you down with my procrastination...)**


	18. 18

**ALEX'S POV:**

It had been a few hours since John had left and Lafayette came home, and the tension between my brother and I seemed to be even more tense than it was before.

I wondered to myself if Lafayette had actually seen John's face, or if it was just his non-morning person side of him, but he was asking a lot of questions. When he asked me silly questions, like why it smelled of sweat, I could simply just tell him to lift his arm and take a wift. However, when it came to asking about why my room looked cleaner than before, I couldn't just tell him I had desperately cleaned up my room as John went to the lobby to then come up to my room, or that I had suddenly become a neat person, so I had to muster up the courage to look him in the eyes and blow a raspberry at him.

I know, it's childish and all, but it got him to chuckle and release the tension in his body language. But with that problem gone, another was remembered. I wanted to kick myself in the shin as I read the accidentally text to Thomas over for what seemed like the twelfth time. I was praying to any and all Gods that the text would fail to send somehow after already being sent. But of course, the damage had already been done.

After seventeen years of living on this Earth, I still managed to overpass my level of Idiocracy everyday. Typical of me.

I wasn't exactly sure why I even had Jefferson's number in the first place. Maybe I had saved it after calling the '666' number at a sleepover and Satan picked up. Satan being Thomas, of course. I had only one thought on my mind as I dreaded a text back.

'What if he's been getting the wrong idea?'

If we were to be technical here, we could say that Thomas had the right to at least have a hunch of a feeling that I was showing a liking to him. Which was the last thing I would ever do. To put spit out the name Jefferson practically made me gag, so why would I ever actually want him to make me gag? As gross as the innuendo sounded, it was way worse to think of the possibility of Thomas Jefferson, my mortal enemy, thinking I had a crush on him.

And the evidence added up, unfortunately.

My sudden change in mood towards him, texting him randomly, and even apologizing to him for something that wasn't even my fault, practically. But I didn't like-like, or even like him. It was just all apart of my plan- Get to see his good side and become his new Madison, apart from the locker room quickies, and then completely crush him and humiliate him so badly that he's either forced to resign as captain. It was all a foolproof plan to take him down.

At least that's what I had kept telling myself as I sat in my room, trying not to think about it all- but of course, it was nearly impossible.

It helped that John had come over, because the smell of musky axe spray mixed with sweat that was left in my bedroom was still fresh. Almost as if he hadn't yet left. It lasted for almost the same amount of time I spent staring at my phone, re-reading the text and feeling more awkward each time.

Did it count as cheating if I was texting another guy while dating someone else? Probably not, right? Only if I was flirting with the second guy. Maybe I could have just texted Thomas the truth and that it was the wrong person all along?

No- What the hell was wrong with me? That was rule one of flirting! To make the person think that you weren't the only they're not the only one in your life and make them go crazy for you. For whatever reason, it always worked. But how could I tell him the truth if it did?

In my defense, it was literally true. I had John! And I really did mean to text somebody else! There was no turning back for my disastrous mistake. I couldn't handle my head's spiraling anymore and tossed my phone down away from me, making a soft thud on the clothes. I wrapped my arms around my knees and hugged myself tightly into a ball before rolling off my makeshift seat and rolling around on my carpet.

"Life is one big shit show!" I groaned aloud into my sweatshirt, not caring if my parents heard me from downstairs.

All I wanted was to go back in time before I decided to text Eliza and text Thomas instead. I also wanted John back here, but unfortunately, Genie's aren't real so I can't get my wishes.

Pehaps I was making a big deal out of nothing. It was just Thomas, right? But then again, it _was_ Thomas. And why did I have to send that fucking emoji?

T _o: Thomass Jeffershit_  
 _Me:_ _Wassup_ 🤡

It was starting to seem like nothing good came of texting. For example, when I threw John into a groupchat with a bunch of my best friends and figured nothing of it. But when I looked back on it days later, John must have felt so awkward having not knowing any of them. It made me cringe just thinking about it. But no more than what really made me cringe; being left on read. And that's exactly what Thomas did to me. I couldn't understand why I was offended suddenly.

Maybe it was the fact that if anybody were to leave me on, especially if I had texted them first. Or maybe I was just offended that it was Jefferson who didn't text me back. After all, it's not like he had anything else to do. But then again, maybe I actually wanted a text back? No. No, I didn't. Did I? I didn't know? I couldn't get my head around my self. What was wrong with me? Maybe I was overthinking it all- It was just Thomas! And I had texted him by mistake anyways! Who was I to say that I was suddenly interested in his response. "That'll be the day pigs fucking fly."

But what if that day was coming, and my subconscious was just keeping it on the down low for my heart's sake?

Did I like Thomas? If I did, why? Why would I like him? He was so bitter and hateful. And the boy I had now was the exact opposite. John was so much better for me in every way. But I just couldn't help but think of Thomas in the moment. John was merrily forgotten about for a hot moment until I noticed the body spray start to fade as new air came into the room from the window I had cracked open.

I was such an awful boyfriend. And all I wanted to do was scream. It was all just so confusing! I couldn't like Thomas, I just couldn't! He was literally Satan with an afro! John was an angel to me and here I was thinking about another guy and questioning my feelings. Maybe I should had just dropped out of school when I had the chance.

No. All this anxiety over on fucking text! I was beginning entirely ridiculous and idiotic over a text. I knew my feelings; I hated Thomas and I loved John.

Wait a minute.


	19. 19

**JOHN'S POV:**

"Don't go too far, go where I can see you." I reminded Mary as we arrived at the neighborhood park, grabbing her hand as we walked toward the playground. I noticed Hercules waving at me as he sat on the table of a bench far beyond the playground, obviously chosen by him so he could vape.

I groaned to myself as I let go of my sister's hand as we reached the playground full of screaming children and tired parents, giving her a soft nudge while I pointed over to Herc, "I'll be over there. Don't talk to strangers." Before I could even walk away, she grabbed my hand again.

Mary gave me big eyes, "You're not 'gonna coming with me?"

I sighed, looking over my shoulder to see Hercules impatiently waiting while he blew out a puff from his cancer stick. I rolled my eyes at him before turning back to my little sister. "Just go play. I'm going to be over there with Herc."

She looked down at her feet in likeable disappointment and nodded before noticing the big toy playground and took off running to one of the slides, giggling to herself.

Hercules greeted me with his usual nod as his lips were still practically sucking the entire inventory of his probably mango flavored nicotine before blowing it out as if it were his soul. I scoffed and sat down next to him with a snicker. "So, how's Alexander? Is Lafayette dealing with it well? Besides beating you to a pulp, that is. You did a good number on him, too, I gotta' say. You should have seen his Snap story! It-"

" _Alexander_ is just fine," I interrupted. "Lafayette, however,  can go fuck himself with a broomstick for all I care, and thanks. I'm going to have Alex over for dinner at my place," I laughed nervously. "He'll be meeting my parents."

Herc winced, "Damn, you're already introducing your parents to him?" Before letting out a cocky chuckle, "Aw, soon you two will be parents!" I kicked his leg with not hesitation but a simple eye roll.

"Shut up. At least I wear a condom, unlike "I forgot it in my other pants" over here. When was the last time you were on top?" "Around the same time your mom was under me."

I kicked him a second time, only harder.

"Aw, mama's boy, ey?" Herc teased, making sexual gestures with his fingers. My face burned red with irritation as I rolled my eyes and clenched my fists. "Man, I've missed messing with you! I feel like you've missed so much since you got benched! Like, you missed out on when Coach had hangover and was late so me and Jack hit empty beer bottles off the roof with the bat- It was awesome! Then, you missed Lee getting a home run but for the other team, and..."

_A chance for a scholarship._

I tuned my friend out, too upset to listen any further. The reminder of my termination from the baseball team was a slap to the face, but no more than what I heard Hercules say next;

"So, did you and Alex fuck before of after you called me?"

"After." I suddenly blurted out, not even realizing that my voice didn't sound as unreal and joking as my answer was intended to be. "Wait, so you actually did it!?" Herc's face suddenly broke out into a huge and mischievous smile, making me put up my soon-to-be sweating hands in defense as I shook my head rapidly.

"No! No, I was kidding! I haven't even seen Alex shirtless! Why would we have sex already?" "I don't know, because you're a horny bitch?" Hercules took another puff from his Juul and blew the smoke out from his nostrils, looking like an angry cartoon bull, even with his cocky smile on his face.

Sometimes I found myself wondering why we were friends in the first place.

"But seriously, dude. Sorry you got beat up... and then benched."

And then I'd remember.

I turned to look at him and then smirked, rolling my eyes back over to the playground. My eyes went a bit round with surprise as I saw a little figure running towards Hercules and I.

"John! John!" I heard a shrill, pipsqueak voice call out, making me sigh heavily. Hercules rolled his eyes as Mary approached us.

"I'm bored!"

I shrugged, "You've got a whole playground to entertain yourself with. Now, go play." The conversation with Herc had made me a tad irritable, causing me to huff in annoyance as Mary squeaked out another demand. "Play with me!"

"I'm hanging with Hercules right now, I can't."

"Why?"

"Because it's rude to Herc," I gestured to my friend, who raised an eyebrow at me. All of his siblings and cousins were either his age of older, and since he had always gotten tortured by all of them, he never really understood sibling affection. As sad as it sounded, it was rather funny whenever he'd ask why I play and take care of Mary whenever he'd be over.

"I'll play with you later, how about that?" I tried to reason, turning back to Herc, who was giving Mary an annoyed look as she huffed and crossed her arms. I rolled my eyes, not even having to look at her to know she was pouting.

"Mary." I called, trying to remind her it was "impolite" to pout. Though I got no answer. "Mary, answer me when I talk to you."

Still nothing.

Confused and slightly annoyed with her attitude, I turned back around and came face to face with the realization that I had been talking to thin air. Mary wasn't standing in front of us anymore. She was gone. It was as smple as it sounded.

I figured she probably ran off out of anger to under the slide, so I didn't bother worrying about it.

No, I didn't bother worrying about it until it was an hour since I had last seen her.

I got up from the bench and made my way to the playground, figuring I could apologize with McDonald's as it was just down the street. I smiled as I popped my head in under the large green tube slide, but found no one except a toddler eating a pinecone. I began to grow a bit anxious as I called out her name, but no voice replied.

I had lost Mary. 

I heard Herc calling after me, but I didn't even spare the picnic table where I had left him alone any sort of glance. I continued to rush around the play area, calling out for Mary while looking for any place her little self could fit, probably looking like a psychopath running around the playground and jumping over to small children, hoping one of them was mine. And when I found that none of them were, panic _officially_ set in.

"Shit! No, no, no, no, no!" I cursed under my breath as my heart rate increased. My hands started to sweat and my face showed not an ounce of the intensifying, overbearing anxiety that I actually felt. Hercules had finally caught up to me and put a hand on my shoulder, though I hit him away from me.

"Dude, what's wrong?"

"Where the fuck is, w-where's Mary!? I can't find her anywhere! Did- Did you see where she went!?"

"No, man. Sorry, I wasn't watching her," he answered. "You told her that she had the whole playground to play with, so maybe she's hiding in the slide or something?"

Immediately guilt hit me so hard in the gut I could have puked right there on the spot. Had I made her run off for not paying attention to her?

"She's your sister, why weren't you paying attention?"

"I was! I looked away for a second and she was gone!"

"Alright, Alright, relax. We'll find her." 

After an hour with no luck, I began to start thinking of the worst. What if a white van had driven by and picked her? What if some creep had offered her some candy, or a puppy? What if some druggie had sold her for a hit? What if she had gotten hit by a bus!? Or eaten by a wild animal that escaped from the zoo!?

"Dude, calm down, we'll find her-" "No, we won't! We've looked everywhere! There's no place else to look! My dad's going to kill me, my baby sister is probably dead or worse, and her last memory of memory of me being me choosing my vape-addicted friend over her. I- I gotta' call the cops or something-" As I went to grab my phone, a voice caught my attention. "Excuse me? Are you missing a child?" I heard a woman's voice ask, as if it were a serious question.

I turned to face her, seeing the middle aged woman holding a little boy in her arms and holding another little boy's hand. I ignored the boys after seeing neither of them were my sister and gave the woman a snarky, sarcastic smile.

"No, we're looking for the leprechaun's gold! Of course I'm looking for a child! My baby sister! Why!? Did you see her!?" "Yes, she-" "Where!?" "Over there! She's over there!" She pointed behind my to a floral area full of large trees, making me squint until I found a familiar pink jacket facing it's back to me.

" _Fuck_ ," I sighed in relief, leaving her with her mouth still ajar from me shaking her with my shouting as I ran upon seeing a familiar set of pigtails and a pair of innocent big, golden brown eyes turn around at the sound of me screaming her name.

I was so caught up and focused on Mary's tear-stained face that I didn't even think to call Hercules over or thank the woman.

What I did do is snatch her from the ground and hug her tight, hearing her choke out a sob from the crook of my neck. I decided not to scream at her for getting herself  lost and running away, figuring she had already learned her lesson on her own.

As she cried, I felt like sobbing myself. Emotion came over me as I held her in my arms, and I soon found a lump making its way up my throat. I felt her shaking against me and quickly took off my own hoodie and placed it over her head, leaving me ultimately shirtless but I couldn't have cared less at that moment. My baby sister cried into my neck and let out a raspy cough, probably had caught a cold from the harsh winds blowing.

I hugged her tighter as I stood up with her still in my arms, not realizing Hercules had found us. "Shit, is she okay?" "I-I think so. I have to get her home. I'll- I'll see you later." "Alright, dude." Hercules sounded hesitant as I walked to the street outside the park to my car and set her in the backseat. She was curled up in my hoodie and her sobs had been beginnig to calm and quiet down as I buckled her in.

I could tell she was still a little shaken, as was I as I drove off and sighed in exhaustion from running around. Mary cried out that she wanted mom, but she wouldn't be home for another to three hours and dad was still on his business trip.

It was a good thing Mary had mentioned my parents, because that reminded me to remind her not to speak any word of the disaster that was the park. I was still technically "grounded" from the Lafayette fight, according to my father, and I knew damn well if I were to be caught sneaking out and being an irresponsible older brother, I'd be in my room until college.

"Mary," I said as gentle as I could, peering at her through the review mirror. "Can you do me a big favor? The biggest favour a big brother could ask for? And if you promise to do me this favor, I'll do whatever you want for a whole day."

Mary looked up at me with large and innocent eyes that showed sudden interest as her cries calmed down to small sniffles. "Can you not tell Mom or Dad about today? They might not let you come back if you tell them."

Her sniffling regressed back to loud and scared crying after I made the stupid decision to say it. "I'm sorry, I was just kidding. I swear, they'll let you come back whenever you want. Just... Please, stop crying!" I mentally cringed at the desperate tone of words, but it got my sister to calm herself down eventually after seeing the shameful look on my face. She sniffled and spoke with a sob caused stutter, "I- I wo- 'Won't tell," I sighed in relief until she spoke again.

"If,"

Of course.

"You play with me for a whole day!"

"Alright, fair enough-" "And take me to a parade!"

Even after being lost in the woods for almost two hours, she was still set on parades. Who was I to deny her that? "Fine, I'll play with you for a whole day _and_ take you to a parade."

"Promise?"

"Even better; I pinky promise." I showed my hand to reveal a fist with the pinky outward and turned to her in the backseat.

Mary smiled and reached her pinky out to link with my own as the light turned green. 

It was a quiet drive back home.

**(*Hercules' character is based off of highschool boys at my school, which are all fuckbois one way or another... Hehe. Also, in case anyone is confused- I'm a girl, biological and mentally, if you didn't already know. Really sorry if it's offensive to anybody, however. Just** **wanted** **to be careful :)**

**(PLEASE IGNORE ANY TYPOS, IM VERY TIRED)**


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